Ukraine, Slovakia PMs seek to cool tensions amid diplomatic row

The tone marked a departure from Mr Fico’s comments on the eve of the meeting, in which he questioned Ukraine’s sovereignty and called for Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow to end the war – something Ukraine has repeatedly ruled out.

Concerns are growing in the West over flagging enthusiasm in some capitals for supporting Kyiv, almost two years after Russia invaded.

Populist leaders in Europe, such as in Slovakia and Hungary, have grown increasingly tired of the grinding conflict and Kyiv’s urgent requests for tens of billions of euros in support.

A €50 billion (S$70 billion) financial aid package for Ukraine is currently being held up in Brussels after being blocked by Hungary.

According to Mr Shmyhal, his counterpart on Jan 23 said Slovakia would support the disbursement of EU aid to Ukraine and would allow Kyiv to buy weapons and equipment from Slovak arms producers “on a commercial basis.”

Despite the conciliatory tone at the summit, in a video message published later on Jan 23, Mr Fico said the two countries continued to have “quite different opinions on some topics.”

“I reiterated that I do not believe in a military solution to this conflict,” Mr Fico said.

He also said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s plan for peace, based on Russia withdrawing its troops and Ukraine not giving up any land, was “not realistic”.

Mr Fico said Slovakia would veto Ukraine becoming a member of the Nato military alliance should it ever get to that stage while he is in office, but was backing Kyiv’s bid for EU membership.