According to the server sme.sk the first item on Fico’s Wednesday program should have been a visit to a grammar school with the Slovak language of instruction, but the Slovak government motorcade only passed by and did not stop.
According to the website, the prime ministers then began to act in the nearby Derenivské spa. Footage from Fico’s welcome was published by Šmyhal on the Telegram social network.
“We are here and we want to help you,” Fico said to his Ukrainian partner and invited Šmyhal to Slovakia, according to the website sme.sk. “Of course there are topics on which we have different opinions, that’s political life,” added the head of the Slovak government.
Fico: Ukraine is not a sovereign state and I will not support its entry into NATO
Support for joining the EU
Fico assured the Ukrainian Prime Minister that Slovakia will support Ukraine’s entry into the European Union, will not block 50 billion euros of EU financial aid or commercial arms deliveries.
“We are grateful to the Slovak nation, which is helping Ukraine and Ukrainians in these challenging times,” said Šmyhal after the meeting with the Slovak prime minister.
The Prime Ministers of both countries signed up for further cooperation aimed at restoring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. At the same time, Fico claimed some time ago that Ukraine should give up part of its territory, because it is not realistic that Russia will leave Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk.
Ministers of Foreign Affairs Juraj Blanár (Smér) and Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smér) also traveled to Ukraine with Fic. There will be no usual press conference after the meeting. According to Fico, the Ukrainian side wanted it that way.
The Slovak press called Fico another exemplary traitor at the head of the state
In recent days, Fico has made other controversial statements about Ukraine, questioning its sovereignty, for example. The day before his visit to Uzhhorod, he also disputed that there is a war in Kyiv.
“Do you really think there is a war in Kiev? Go there and you will find that life is absolutely normal there,” Fico said on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting in Kamenice nad Cirochou in eastern Slovakia, when asked by a journalist why his meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister on Wednesday was not held in Kyiv, but in Uzhgorod, which is located right next to at the Slovak border.
On the same day, there were rocket attacks on the Ukrainian capital, which left at least 20 injured, including children.
After Wednesday’s meeting, Šmyhal said that Slovak-Ukrainian relations are entering a new chapter. “With the Slovak government, we are striving for a policy of ‘new pragmatism’,” he noted.
Fico then heads for Scholz
Key representatives from abroad go to visit Kyiv even in the conditions of the ongoing Russian invasion. The new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk visited there on Monday. Czech President Petr Pavel, during his visit to Ukraine last April with Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová, had to take shelter in Kyiv due to an air traffic alert.
After Fico’s government took office in October, Bratislava stopped military aid to Ukraine from Slovak state reserves. Fico also rejected Ukraine’s membership in NATO, criticizes anti-Russian sanctions, repeatedly called Ukraine a corrupt country and claimed that the current Ukrainian-Russian conflict has no military solution. “We do not believe in a military solution to the conflict. There is no military solution,” Fico emphasized. The Slovak government intends to help Ukraine only by delivering humanitarian aid.
According to the office of the Slovak government, Fico will travel to Germany after the meeting with Šmyhal. In Berlin, he will hold talks with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
