Russia-Ukraine war live: Slovakia halts military aid to Ukraine; North Korea becoming ‘significant’ arms supplier to Moscow
Slovakia halts military aid to Ukraine
Jon Henley
Slovakia’s new populist prime minister, Robert Fico, has said his three-party coalition government was ending military aid to its eastern neighbour Ukraine, fulfilling one of his central campaign pledges.
Fico told MPs on Thursday before heading to a summit of EU leaders in Brussels that Slovakia would “no longer supply weapons to Ukraine”, but would continue to send humanitarian aid to its war-torn neighbour.
“I will support zero military aid to Ukraine … An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker,” the new prime minister added.
He also said he would “not vote for any sanctions against Russia unless we see analyses of their impact on Slovakia. If there are to be such sanctions that will harm us, like most sanctions have, I can see no reason to support them.”
The country had previously been a staunch supporter of Kyiv since Russia’s invasion February last year, donating ammunition and weaponry its fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, and opening its borders for refugees fleeing the war.
The previous caretaker government suspended military aid earlier this month after Fico’s Smer-SD party won a 30 September election on a pledge to halt further supplies, oppose sanctions on Moscow and block Ukraine’s potential Nato membership.
Fico, who was forced to resign in 2018 amid huge popular protests after the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancee, was formally sworn in on Wednesday as Slovakia’s prime minister, his fourth stint in the office.
Analysts expect the country to move closer to the nationalist policies of Hungary, whose illiberal leader, Viktor Orbán, Fico has said he admires – although many question how far he will follow through on his campaign rhetoric.
Smer finished first in last month’s ballot with 23% of the vote and formed a coalition with Hlas, a more moderate breakaway party led by Fico’s former deputy Peter Pellegrini, and the ultra-nationalist, pro-Russian Slovak National party (SNS).