Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico continues to make headlines with his seemingly uncompromising stance on Ukraine, saying many forbidden truths, including the most taboo one: Kiev will have to cede territory for peace. Probably a lot.
Fico said the only way to end Russia’s war against Ukraine is for Kyiv to recognize the territorial losses it withstood, something Politico calls ‘give up some of its territory to the invaders’.
The Slovak leader also restated his opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine.
Politico reported:
“’There has to be some kind of compromise’, Fico told Slovak public broadcaster RTVS on Saturday, according to media reports. ‘What do they expect, that the Russians will leave Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk? That’s unrealistic’.”
Fico took power in December, after his leftist-populist Smer party won September’s election.
He promised to stop sending weapons to Ukraine, block Kyiv’s potential NATO membership, and to oppose sanctions on Russia.
The Slovak PM’s interview comes ahead of a meeting between the Slovak leader and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, planned for Wednesday.
“‘I will tell him that I am against the membership of Ukraine in NATO and that I will veto it’, Fico said, referring to Shmyhal. ‘It would merely be a basis for World War III, nothing else.
‘Ukraine is not an independent and sovereign country’, Fico continued, but ‘under the total influence and control of the United States’.
‘I will confirm that he will not receive any weapons’ from the Slovak government, Fico said, accusing Ukraine of being ‘one of the most corrupt nations in the world’.”
In this same vein, Slovakia’s Culture Ministry also announced it will resume cooperation with Russia and Belarus following its suspension in March 2022 after the start of the war in Ukraine.
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