Both the coalition and the opposition welcome the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. In the same breath, however, they add that it is Moscow’s turn now.
Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) posted on a social network on Wednesday that he supports all peace plans and proposals for a truce in Ukraine. Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar considers the ceasefire proposal to be an important step in the conflict. “We call upon the Russian Federation to address this proposal without delay.“
A similar reaction comes from the side of Defence Minister Robert Kalinak who sees the proposal as complex and rational. "If anybody has any comments on this, they can of course make them, because this is not an agreed upon truce yet, but we have said all along that we want the killing of people to stop immediately, and this is the way to achieve that," stated Slovak Defence Minister.
Opposition PS party MP Beáta Jurík is wondering what the final stance of Russia will be.
“We will see in the next few days whether Vladimir Putin will agree to a ceasefire, or whether all those words about peace that he addressed to the US President and others were just empty platitudes.“
The opposition Christian Democrats (KDH) welcome any steps that will stop the bloodshed while they can only hope that Russia will agree to the truce.
The question of increasing defense spendings is not settled yet. For Wednesday next week, SaS party has called an opposition meeting to deal with this topic. President Peter Pellegrini plans to organise a roundtable discussion: “I will also invite the Defense Minister and the Chief of the General Staff to this meeting so that we can really try to unite across the political spectrum on the position that we will put forward at the European Council meetings and also at the forthcoming NATO summit.“
Source: Katarína Borovská, Slovenský rozhlas
