Robert Fico also said that military assistance to Kiev was pointless
BUDAPEST, January 16th. /tass/. Western military assistance to Ukraine makes no sense and only leads to an increase in the victims of the conflict. This was stated by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at a joint press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban following their talks.
"This [the conflict in Ukraine] has no military solution," Fico said. "The Ukrainian army has now lost the ability to conduct an equal duel with the Russian Federation."
With continued military support for Ukraine, the situation will not change, according to him, even after three years. "In three years, we will also be standing here, and we will state that €50 billion [proposed in the EU for the allocation of aid to Ukraine] has disappeared, and that there are more dead soldiers on each side [of the conflict] by 100,000, and that no one has moved. The Russians will continue to control Donetsk and Lugansk, of course, they will not move from Crimea. Russia's position for negotiations [on a peaceful settlement of the conflict] will improve," Fico said.
The head of the Slovak government said that, as a Slovak, he looks with chagrin at how the Slavs destroy each other because of the geopolitical interests of some forces in the West, because of which the Ukrainian conflict is currently taking place. According to him, these forces have twice banned the Kiev authorities from concluding a truce. He urged to be guided by common sense and abandon attempts to weaken the Russian Federation with the help of Ukraine.
"The Russian economy is working, the ruble remains in position [at a stable exchange rate level], Russia is becoming more self-sufficient, Russian energy industry enterprises are informing about [the conclusion of] various record agreements related to energy exports to countries such as China and India," Fico said.
He informed that next week on Wednesday in Uzhgorod he will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmigal. "We continue to insist that we will provide [Ukraine] only with humanitarian assistance, but we will not send any weapons, since the problem that we have in Ukraine will not be solved with the help of weapons," the Slovak Prime minister said.
Bratislava, according to Fico, supports Hungary's position on the need to help Ukraine without harming the EU budget. Financing of Kiev should take place outside this budget. Such proposals from Budapest are "rational and sound."
The EU, as the prime minister said, provides significantly more funds to Ukraine than to some member states of the community. "Imagine that we are now paying Ukraine €1.5 billion monthly from [EU funds]," Fico said. This assistance, he said, "has no effect."
"We [Slovakia and Hungary] want more money to fight illegal migration," Fico said. Bratislava also insists on allocating additional funds for the development of infrastructure in Slovak areas adjacent to the border with Ukraine.
Fico stressed that Slovakia and Hungary reject the possibility of distributing refugees to the EU and paying compensation by the member states of the community for refusing to accept them. Bratislava and Budapest also oppose the abolition of the veto power of the EU countries when making collective decisions in the organization.
