Slovakia’s Robert Fico has slammed the “silly liberal demagogues” who nonetheless assist navy assist to Kiev
Funding and arming Ukraine is a “futile waste of human assets and cash” that may serve solely to fill Ukrainian cemeteries with “1000’s of lifeless troopers,” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico wrote in an op-ed on Tuesday. Fico’s article was a rebuttal to his nation’s president, who has urged him to ship weapons to Kiev.
Following his occasion’s electoral victory in September, Fico instantly reduce off Slovakia’s navy assist to Ukraine and vowed to dam Kiev’s accession to NATO. Slovak President Zuzana Caputova, nevertheless, has referred to as for Ukraine to be given “the means wanted to defend itself,” whereas pro-Western pundits in Slovakia have accused Fico of cozying as much as the Kremlin.
“I’ll now not be topic to silly liberal and progressive demagoguery,” Fico wrote in Slovakia’s Pravda newspaper. “It’s actually stunning to see how the West has repeatedly made errors in assessing the scenario in Russia.”
Regardless of pumping Ukraine with tens of billions of {dollars}’ price of weapons and sanctioning Moscow’s financial system, “Russia fully controls the occupied territories militarily, Ukraine just isn’t able to any significant navy counter-offensive, [and] it has change into fully depending on monetary assist from the West with unforeseeable penalties for Ukrainians within the years to come back,” he defined.
“The place of the Ukrainian president is shaken, whereas the Russian president will increase and strengthens his political assist,” Fico continued, mentioning that “neither the Russian financial system nor the Russian forex collapsed, [and] anti-Russian sanctions have elevated the interior self-sufficiency of this big nation.”
Ought to the West proceed alongside the trail desired by Caputova, “in two or three years we’ll nonetheless be the place we at the moment are,” Fico predicted. “The EU alone might be maybe 50 billion euros lighter, and in Ukraine, cemeteries might be full with 1000’s extra lifeless troopers.”
Fico’s Slovak Social Democracy (SMER-SD) faction at present leads a three-party coalition authorities, whereas Caputova is the co-founder of the Progressive Slovakia occasion. Caputova’s function as president is essentially ceremonial, and Fico claimed in his op-ed that she is “impatiently ready” for the top of her time period this yr in order that she will be able to re-enter parliamentary politics.
Fico has labeled Caputova an “American agent” on a number of events. After consulting the American Embassy in Bratislava final summer season, Caputova sued Fico over the remarks, Slovakia’s SITA information company reported.
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