Former prime minister Robert Fico accused Western allies of ‘supporting the killings’ in Ukraine by handing the tanks or other military equipment to the Kyiv government.
“It’s a blatant support of killings without results,” Fico said at a press briefing on Tuesday about the tank deliveries, specifically naming France, Germany and Italy.
Fico is a chairman of the Smer-SD, currently ranking first in the polls ahead of September’s snap parliamentary elections with approximately 18% support.
At the press briefing, Fico reiterated that Smer-SD doesn’t support arms deliveries to Ukraine. Instead, Fico stressed that “to sit down and negotiate peace” is necessary.
“I particularly appreciate the attitude of the Holy Father, I appreciate the attitude of China, Brazil, who has a hundred times more sense than the Americans with the Germans and the British,” Fico added, saying that it is naive to believe that any number of tanks will change Russia’s attitude to the war.
Fico’s words come at the time of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s tour around Europe, during which he visited Paris, London, Berlin, and Rome to get more weapons from his Western allies.
In recent years, the Smer-SD chairman has shifted his rhetoric from a supporter of EU integration to far-right propaganda after he was forced to resign as prime minister in 2018 due to nationwide protests against his government.
After the Russian invasion, Fico compared NATO troops arriving in Slovakia to Nazi forces. Many other similar statements came after, as well as closer cooperation with the far-right The Republic party.
(Michal Hudec | EURACTIV.sk)
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