Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said in a video address posted on social media on Saturday that the West has for more than four years been “needlessly pouring oil on the fire” in Ukraine. In his view, the strategy of “destroying Russia” through the war has failed, and some Western politicians are now seeking to provoke a direct conflict between NATO and Russia.
“The failure of the strategy to destroy Russia through the war in Ukraine is forcing many Western politicians to conclude that if this cannot be achieved with the help of the Ukrainian army and full support for it, then everything must be done to provoke a conflict between NATO and Russia,” Fico said. He added that “certain war hawks in NATO are trying at any cost to turn this war into a conflict between Russia and NATO.”
The Slovak prime minister acknowledged that Russia started the war by attacking Ukraine, but stressed that, in his opinion, Russia cannot be defeated in a conventional war — “only with the help of nuclear weapons.” He said Slovakia would not take part in such a conflict and that under his government “no one will, under a fabricated pretext, send Slovak soldiers beyond Slovakia’s territory to fight against Russia or any other country.” Even an appeal to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, he said, is not sufficient grounds to drag the country into war.
Fico also repeated the claim that Ukraine made a “huge mistake” in April 2022 by refusing to sign a prepared peace agreement and listening to the West. He called for immediate peace talks and recalled that the Slovak government does not take part in military deliveries or loans to Kyiv.
