The Ukrainian chief must cease asking different folks for cash, Slovakia’s Robert Fico has stated
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has lashed out at Vladimir Zelensky, declaring that the Ukrainian chief’s “begging and blackmailing” wants “to cease.” Relations between Bratislava and Kiev soured when Ukraine reduce off the move of Russian gasoline earlier this month.
“I’m not right here to carry fingers with Zelensky, and I’ll admit, I’m sick of him generally,” Fico stated at a gathering of the Slovak parliament’s international affairs committee on Friday.
“He roams Europe begging and blackmailing, asking others for cash,” Fico continued, including: “This must cease.”
Fico has lengthy been a critic of Western support to Kiev, arguing that Ukraine can’t hope to defeat Russia on the battlefield and should as an alternative search a diplomatic resolution to the battle. Instantly after taking workplace in 2023, Fico halted army support to Ukraine and vowed to veto the nation’s potential accession to NATO.
Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have each angered Zelensky by defying the EU consensus and assembly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Throughout a gathering in Moscow final month, Fico provided to host peace talks in Slovakia, a suggestion that Putin stated he’s “not towards.”
With relations already strained, Ukraine deepened its spat with Slovakia when it refused to increase its transit contract with Russia’s Gazprom past the tip of 2024, successfully chopping off the move of Russian pure gasoline to some EU nations, particularly Austria, Italy, and Slovakia. Landlocked Slovakia is dependent upon Russian gasoline to satisfy about 60% of its demand.
Fico has demanded compensation from Kiev, and has vowed to retaliate, doubtlessly by chopping off electrical energy provides and humanitarian support to Ukraine.
Slovakia exported 2.4 million megawatt-hours of electrical energy to Ukraine within the first 11 months of 2024, in line with knowledge from the Slovak grid operator.
“Neither Slovakia nor the EU is at struggle, we have now no purpose to tolerate Zelensky’s adventures, particularly trying on the support Slovakia and the EU are offering to Ukraine,” Fico stated in a video handle posted on Fb on Wednesday.
Regardless of receiving assurances from Moscow that Slovakia would proceed to obtain Russian gasoline by way of the TurkStream pipeline, Fico stated that he would journey to Brussels to satisfy with Vitality Commissioner Dan Jorgensen “to wake him up from his candy sleep, as a result of we have now a ‘bloody’ major problem.”
Fico and Jorgensen met on Thursday to debate the impact of the gasoline cutoff on vitality costs, and agreed to carry additional consultations.
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