No NATO for Ukraine
Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
The Prime Minister also confirmed he will be meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday in Uzhgorod. He said the Slovak Republic would support Ukraine’s membership of the EU, if they meet the conditions; but not entry into NATO.
He will present a list of Slovak humanitarian aid, but he also plans to confirm that Kiev will not receive any weapons from the army or warehouses.
He reiterated in a radio interview on the weekend that in his view, Ukraine is not a sovereign state. „”It has been under the total influence and control of the United States of America since 2014 after the Maidan", he said.
Fico thinks that for the war to end, Ukraine would have to give up some of its territory to Russia. "There has to be some kind of compromise that will be very painful for both sides," he said. "And what are they waiting for? That the Russians will leave Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk? It's unrealistic," he added.
Michal Šimečka, the leader of the largest opposition party Progressive Slovakia, called his remarks ‘callous and vulgar‘. He added that if history had gone just a little differently, the same misery that Ukrainians are now living in could have been visited on Slovakia as well.
Peter Pellegrini, coalition partner of Fico and now also candidate for president, said that having received so much support, Ukraine inevitably will have to listen to its sponsors: “It is not fully autonomous in all areas because it must respect the demands of those who give the money there in bulk, and expect it to behave in a certain way.“
Milan Majerský, chairman of the opposition party KDH, pointed out that Slovakia does not give weapons to Ukraine but it does allow commercial sales of ammunition and weapons by its own industry. „Prime minister Fico in fact, is supporting also this war through his minister Robert Kalinak, who allocated €100 million to arms companies.“
Fico’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Juraj Blanar, is in Brussels today to meet his EU colleagues.
(RTVS, TASR, Sme)
