Robert Fico, Slovakia’s former prime minister and current leading candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, hinted that if his SMER party comes to power, he might stop supporting Ukraine. According to a report in The Kyiv Independent, Fico stressed in an interview with the Associated Press that his government would “no longer send weapons or ammunition to Ukraine.”

He also made it clear that Ukraine, regardless of the amount of Western weapons, could not change the course of the war and called for a “compromise peace agreement” with Russia. Fico stressed that he does not believe Russia will ever give up territory in Ukraine that it currently controls. His stance on EU sanctions against Russia is known to be negative, and he would like Slovakia, although a NATO member, to prevent Ukraine from joining this alliance.

Fico’s controversial war narratives and his shadowy political legacy

Interestingly, he also commented on the cause of the war in Ukraine, repeating the Russian narrative that the war was started by “Ukrainian Nazis and fascists” murdering Russian citizens.

Fico was prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012, but was forced to resign in 2018 after a political crisis related to the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak. The Kyiv Independent points out that Kuciak had previously investigated corruption in Fico’s party and connections between the mafia and Fico’s entourage.