Newly elected Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico pledged Thursday to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine just one day after taking office, Politico reported.
The PM told lawmakers that Slovakia would “no longer supply weapons to Ukraine,” focusing only on humanitarian aid.
I will support zero military aid to Ukraine … An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker.
Having won Slovakia’s general election in September, the head of the left-populist Smer party, Robert Fico, took the oath of office on Wednesday as head of a coalition government with the right-populist SNS party and the social-democratic Hlas party.
In his election campaign, Fico promised to halt arms shipments to Ukraine and to resist further European sanctions against Russia.
Under the previous centre-right government, Slovakia sent Kyiv several arms shipments, including the S-300 air defence system and old MiG-29 fighter jets.
The new Prime Minister is set to attend his first summit of European leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday amid fears that he will team up with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and jeopardise the bloc’s unity on Ukraine and Russia.
