Ukraine heading for disaster – Slovak PM
The Ukrainian government is pushing the country towards ruin by trying to serve the interests of the West, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico claimed in a Facebook post on Friday.
Fico said that he finds it “incomprehensible” that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky continues to refuse a ceasefire with Russia, and is instead “dragging the entire country into disaster.”
The Slovak premier predicted that Ukraine will pay “a huge price for this Western adventure in the form of the loss of territory and the presence of foreign troops.”
Fico stressed that he would personally never join Western politicians who “openly support war” and would “never agree to Slavs killing each other in the name of any geopolitical interests and efforts to weaken and distract Russia.”
In the video, he also hit out at Zelensky, who has repeatedly attacked Fico in public speeches and on social media. The prime minister argued that the West is only granting Zelensky’s requests for “selfish political and power reasons.”
“However, I am not your subordinate servant who cannot express his own opinion and who has an obligation only to help you and not to expect anything from you,” Fico added.
He condemned Zelensky’s pledge that Kiev will stop transporting Russian gas deliveries to Slovakia after January 1, warning that the move would severely damage the EU economy. Fico warned that Bratislava could consider a number of reciprocal measures, including cutting electricity supplies to Ukraine.
“Stopping the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine is not just a hollow political gesture. It’s an extremely costly move, one that we, in the European Union, will pay for,” Fico stressed.
The prime minister also announced that aside from continuing to push for a ceasefire and encouraging the start of peace talks, Slovakia will also offer itself as a “suitable country for organizing any peace negotiations at any level.”
Fico noted that he proposed the idea of Bratislava hosting negotiations to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his recent visit to Moscow. The Russian leader has since told reporters that Moscow would not be opposed to the idea.
