Anticipating Russia to desert Crimea or Donbass is “unrealistic,” Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico has mentioned
Ukraine ought to concede the lack of a number of the territories that have been beforehand underneath its management in an effort to finish the battle with Russia, Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico has mentioned.
Fico made the assertion throughout a weekend interview with broadcaster RTVS devoted to his upcoming go to to Ukraine. The Slovak PM is scheduled to journey on Wednesday to Uzhgorod, a metropolis close to the border between the 2 international locations, for a gathering together with his Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmygal.
The continued battle between Moscow and Kiev can’t be resolved by way of navy means and will finish in compromise that may be “painful for each side,” he mentioned.
“What are [the Ukrainians] ready for? That the Russians will depart Donbass and Lugansk, or that they may depart Crimea? It’s unrealistic,” Fico insisted.
The Individuals’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have been formally integrated into the Russian state within the fall of 2022, collectively the Kherson and Zaporozhye areas, because of referendums held in these areas. Crimea has been part of Russia since 2014.
The continuation of the preventing that has been underway since February 2022 will solely make Moscow stronger, Fico added.
The Slovak premier additionally mentioned Ukraine was “not a sovereign, unbiased nation” attributable to it being “underneath absolutely the affect of the US.” He criticized the EU for making “an enormous mistake” of following Washington’s lead in relation to coping with Kiev, as an alternative of creating its personal “sovereign” view on the difficulty.
As for his talks this week with Shmygal, Fico promised to inform his Ukrainian counterpart that he’s towards Kiev’s membership in NATO, as that may be “precisely the idea of World Warfare Three,” and to reiterate that President Vladimir Zelensky’s authorities gained’t be getting any extra weapons from Bratislava.
The prime minister’s interview prompted indignant response in Kiev, with the top of the Ukrainian parliament’s International Affairs Committee Aleksandr Merezhko demanded that Fico’s journey to Ukraine be canceled for his “disgraceful statements” that crossed “the crimson line.”
“Each nation ought to have not less than minimal self-respect. It’s completely unacceptable to fake that nothing is going on when the chief of one other state makes statements that query the sovereignty of a state” that he’s about to go to, Merezhko wrote on Fb.
Fico made a comeback as Slovakia’s prime minister in October after his occasion gained the snap election within the EU nation, campaigning on guarantees of, amongst different measures, slicing navy support to Kiev and enhancing ties with Moscow.
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