Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed full solidarity with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Thursday in connection with the previous statements of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Thursday, he expressed the hope that Orbán will stop blocking financial support intended for Ukraine, otherwise “he will give the Ukrainian army the address of the (Hungarian) prime minister so they can talk to him.”
“It is unacceptable for Ukrainian President Zelensky to think that we are his servants and we must do everything he expects. We help him in everything. He, on the contrary, harms us. He caused us 500 million damage in terms of gas transit fees. Now he stopped the oil. It appears that the pipeline is damaged, although satellite images clearly confirm that this is not the case,” Fico said in a video posted on Facebook.
At the same time, Fico called Zelensky’s message to Orbán “gross blackmail” and something that we must all reject – regardless of the fact that there is a war in Ukraine. At the same time, the Slovak Prime Minister officially asked the highest representatives of the European Union, including the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council, António Costa, and the head of the EU’s foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, to distance themselves from the “outrageous blackmail statements” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who, according to him, “crossed all red lines.”
“If the Ukrainian president continues like this, it may happen that other EU member states will also block the 90 billion loan for Ukraine“said the prime minister of the Slovak Republic. Minister of the Interior of the Slovak Republic Matúš Šutaj Eštok also commented on Zelensky’s message to Orbán on Facebook, according to which “the threats of the Ukrainian president towards the prime minister of a member state of the European Union, Viktor Orbán, are absolutely out of line”.
According to Šutaj Eštok, such statements require a strong diplomatic response from the entire European Union. “Threats and coercion should not be in the vocabulary or in the actions of a country that strives to become a member country of the European Union. Slovakia will always stand on the side of reason, state sovereignty and mutual respect. No one – no matter what the situation – has the right to intimidate the leaders of the countries of the European Union!” wrote the Minister of the Interior.
