At an upcoming meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Denys A. Shmyhal, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will announce his intention to block Ukraine's entry into NATO because of the risk of World War III. Fico said this on 20 January in a broadcast on the RTVS television channel.
According to him, the main topic of the talks scheduled for 24 January in Uzhhorod will be the delivery of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Slovakia will also reiterate its refusal to provide Kiev with any weapons from its own stocks.
"I will say that I am against Ukraine's membership in NATO, that I will use my veto power to block it, because it will be the basis for a third world war," Fico said.
The Slovak Prime Minister also expressed his respect for the possibility of Ukraine joining the European Union under certain conditions. Fico also specified that the Ukrainian side would not hold a press conference after the upcoming negotiations, Gazeta.ru reported.
Earlier, on 9 January, Fico wrote in a column for the newspaper Pravda that the strategy developed by Western countries in Ukraine was not working and had proven to be a complete failure.
On December 6, 2023, it was announced that Slovakia had handed over military aid worth €671 million to Ukraine over the period - including a squadron of MiG-29 fighter jets withdrawn from the country's air force, the S-300 air defence system and eight Zuzana-2 self-propelled howitzers.
Also on 4 December, Fico told Šmyhal in a telephone conversation that Slovakia does not believe in a military solution to the conflict in Ukraine because it only leads to "ineffective bloodshed".
Western countries have increased their military and financial support to Ukraine in the context of the Russian Federation's special operation to protect Donbas, which began on 24 February 2022 due to the deterioration of the situation in the region as a result of Ukrainian shelling. At the same time, there have been increasing statements from the West recently about the need to reduce support for Ukraine.
Izvestia/GN.CZ-RoZ_07
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