The Minister of Defense of Slovakia announced the revision of defense cooperation with the United States
Slovak Defense Minister Kalinjak said that Bratislava would reconsider the terms of the defense agreement with the United States, and also would not transfer its weapons to Ukraine. Slovak Prime Minister Fico announced his refusal to supply weapons to Kiev this week. Hungarian Prime Minister Orban holds the same position. Thus, as Newsweek magazine wrote, the authorities of Hungary and Slovakia dealt the President of Ukraine Zelensky a double blow. Details are in the material of "Gazeta.Ru».
Defense Agreement
Slovakia will revise the terms of the defense agreement with the United States concluded in 2022, and will not transfer its weapons to Ukraine, the Slovak Defense Minister Robert Kalinyak published a post with such information on his Facebook page (the owner of Meta is recognized as extremist in Russia and banned).
As the Minister noted, the parties agreed that dialogue is the way to mutual prosperity.
According to him, Bratislava values good relations with Western countries, but the current government in the country "is not like the previous slave governments" of Slovakia.
Prime Minister of Slovakia
On October 26, the new head of the Slovak government, Robert Fico, who took office on October 25 following the parliamentary elections, said that Bratislava would not provide military assistance to Ukraine. At the same time, according to him, the republic supports humanitarian and civil assistance to Ukraine.
At the same time, the Slovak Prime Minister called on the European Union (EU), which supplies the bulk of weapons to Ukraine, to take the role of a peacemaker in the conflict.
Prior to that, Fico criticized the restrictive measures imposed against Moscow, and also threatened to veto Kiev's invitation to NATO. On October 21, Politico suggested that the position of the Slovak authorities on Ukraine could have changed due to the fact that Fico was insulted by a "cold reception" in Kiev in 2009.
Slovakia and Hungary
As the newspaper Politico wrote, citing a source in diplomatic circles on October 26, Fico said during the EU summit in Brussels that he opposed the allocation of a €50 billion aid package to Ukraine. The Slovak prime minister argued for the refusal, saying that a high degree of corruption has been established in Ukraine, he fears the theft of EU money.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made a similar statement at the same time. We are talking about the program of assistance to Ukraine for the next four years, which Brussels plans to approve as part of the EU budget changes for the period from 2024 to 2027. The approval of the program requires the support of all 27 EU member states, including Hungary and Slovakia.
On October 22, Orban said that support for Ukraine does not come first for the Hungarian people. According to him, Budapest will never put the interests of Ukraine above the interests of Hungary. On October 25, the Prime Minister said that Budapest would not fulfill the request of the Ukrainian government and return men of military age to Ukraine.
On Saturday, the American magazine Newsweek wrote that the authorities of Hungary and Slovakia dealt Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky a double blow due to the refusal of Budapest and Bratislava to supply weapons to Kiev. As the publication wrote, Bratislava, for example, previously supplied Ukraine with a large amount of ammunition, armored vehicles, artillery pieces, Kiev even received Slovak fighters.
Anastasia Novikova
