Slovakia, Hungary 'Undeterred' by Pressure and Threats Over Ukraine Aid
12:58 GMT 24.01.2024 (Updated: 12:03 GMT 25.01.2024)
© AFP 2023 / ATTILA KISBENEDEK
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Ahead of his meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmygal in Uzhgorod Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico noted that Ukraine is under "the total control and influence of the United States" since the events of 2014, and the European Union (EU) is making a big mistake by taking American view of the Ukraine conflict.
Hungarian and Slovak leaders have refused to support Ukraine despite death threats and accusations of cowardice.
Prime Minister Robert Fico, who arrived in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod on Wednesday, said it was a “more practical" venue for meeting his counterpart because the city sits on the border with Slovakia.
Ahead of his meeting with Denis Shmygal, Fico was asked by a journalist why he was not going to the capital, Kiev. The Slovak PM replied that Uzhhorod was chosen by the Ukrainian side.
When the reporter suggested that Fico should go to Kiev, where ”rockets are falling”, the PM replied: "Go there and you will see that there is a normal life in the city, absolutely normal life."
As part of the ongoing special military operation Russia's Armed Forces carry out precision strikes against facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex that produce missiles and their components, ammunition and explosives, never targeting civilians the way the Kiev regime does.
On Saturday, Fico stressed that he intended to tell Shmygal that Slovakia would veto Ukraine’s NATO membership bid.
"As for their entry into the European Union, we respect that, but they must meet the conditions... I will say that I am against Ukraine's membership in NATO, that I will use the right of veto and block it, because it will be the foundation of World War 3," Fico told broadcaster RTVS.
If Ukraine joined NATO, “some conflicts will be constantly instigated there,” and “once a clash happens between Russia and a NATO member state, we will have a world war," said Fico. He also reiterated his government’s position of halting arms supplies to Ukraine — while noting that Bratislava does not refuse humanitarian aid to Kiev.
Fico's Smer party-led government, elected in the September 2023 general election, reversed the country's stance on the Ukrainian crisis in favor of stopping military supplies to Kiev. Fico, dubbed the "Slovak Orban" after his Hungarian counterpart who also opposes confrontation with Russia, stressed that aiding the Kiev regime weakens the Slovak armed forces and only prolongs a conflict that Ukraine has no chance of winning.
Earlier, it was reported that Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who will also visit Uzhgorod, had received a death threat. The message, written in Ukrainian, was sent to the e-mail address of the Hungarian Embassy in Ukraine, according to Hungarian news site Index.
"Hungarians, we hate your government, which continues to do everything possible to make us lose," the letter stated.
In response, Hungary's Foreign Ministry stated that the threat "will not deter Peter Szijjarto from representing Hungary's interests."
"Those who think that the Hungarian foreign minister is scared do not know Peter Szijjarto," wrote a ministry spokesperson.
Szijjarto has meeting scheduled with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak on January 29. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry said Ukrainian authorities have offered security assurances to the minister's delegation.
Uzhgorod, a city on the Uzh River in western Ukraine, has become an important venue for bilateral meetings thanks to its geographical location. It sits on the Slovak border and near the frontier with Hungary. Szijjarto explained it was also home to many Hungarian-speaking Ukrainian citizens.
"Hungary is interested in our cooperation with Ukraine being good. There is a 150,000-strong community of Transcarpathian Hungarians living in Ukraine, and in their interests we will try to reach some kind of agreement with our Ukrainian colleagues next Monday,” Szijjarto stressed in a social media video message.
The population of Uzhhorod, the administrative center of Transcarpathian Ukraine, comprised 6.9 percent Hungarians, and 2.2 percent Slovaks in 2001, according to Ukrainian census data.
Thousands of Ukrainians headed for Uzhgorod when the conflict escalated in February 2022, turning the city onto a refugee hub with many travelling onward to the Czech Republic and other destinations in Europe. Located in the area is the largest Ukrainian-Slovak border crossing, Vysne Nemecke.
Europe is hosting over 5.9 million Ukrainians displaced by the conflict. But countries are increasingly scaling back aid to them amid economic hardships of their own, caused in part by backfiring Western sanctions on Russia.
Both Fico's and Szijjarto's visits come as their countries draw flak from the Kiev regime's main Western backers.
Hungary and Slovakia have been the only two EU and NATO members to refuse to send arms to Kiev.
In November, Fico's new government ended its predecessor's policy of military aid to Ukraine, worth roughly $43 million up to that point. The aid package was reportedly to include rockets and ammunition. The former government had stripped its arsenals bare to support the Kiev regime, Slovak Defense Minister Robert Kalinak said in an interview with news outlet Standard earlier this month.
Orban banned shipments of military hardware to Ukraine crossing Hungarian soil. Budapest has also continually rejected Brussels' self-harming sanctions, especially its embargo on Russian energy, and has continued economic cooperation with Moscow.
The EU has been left struggling to reach an agreement on billions of euros in military support for Ukraine amid opposition from some member states, including Hungary. PM Orban blocked €50bn ($55bn; £43bn) in EU aid for Ukraine in Deecember.
Szijjarto recently said Hungary will oppose financing arms supplies to Ukraine from the European Peace Facility (EPF), but cannot interfere with other countries' decisons. The Wall Street Journal reported that the European External Action Service (EEAS) is developing a new plan to provide financial assistance to Ukraine that will allow the Brussels-based bloc to override Hungary's veto on the EUs mid-term financial assistance to Ukraine.
"Hungary has not sent weapons before and will not send weapons after this. And we are not ready to participate in any decision or process that will lead to an increase in arms supplies to Ukraine," Szijjarto told the M1 broadcaster, adding that Budapest "cannot and does not want to prevent others from sending weapons on the basis of a national decision."
At his year-end press conference in December 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Orban and Fico of were among the only defenders of national interests left in the West, dismissing the accusation that they were “pro-Russian.”
“I have already said many times before that they are not ‘pro-Russian’ politicians, but rather pro-national – they defend their [national] interests. There are no others like this, they simply don’t exist…[This is] tied to a great dependence on ‘Big Brother,’ on the United States,” the Russian president said.
14 December 2023, 11:37 GMT
