The very popular and successful Slovak fundraising for ammunition for Ukraine was a symbolic gesture, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico insulted the campaign with a statement about “farting.” This was reported by Dennik N.
In particular, Fico used the phrase “prd do stromovky” (literally “fart in the tree”) when he mentioned the funds raised by the Slovaks. We can translate this vulgar expression as “a drop in the bucket.”
Fico said there is nothing stopping people from doing what they want with their money, but added that the United States has approved $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, and the European Union has also approved tens of billions of euros.
“Nothing will change in Ukraine, and in a year or two, it will be the same.” He added that in Slovakia, it is better to collect money for cancer patients than for bullets and bombs.
Fico sees the fund-raising for ammunition for Ukraine as a huge effort to make “some kind of counterbalance to the government,” as the Slovak government refuses to supply Ukraine with weapons. “But we are really helping Ukraine,” Fico said, recalling several agreements in the economic and humanitarian spheres between Slovakia and Ukraine.
Last year, the Slovak government cut off military aid to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, arguing that Russia’s war against Ukraine has no military solution, and Fico called for “peace talks.” Fico also opposes Ukraine’s accession to NATO. “I will use my veto and block it because it will be the foundation of World War III,” he said in January.
Slovakia has been a strong supporter of Ukraine, and the previous government supplied the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weapons, including combat vehicles, S-300 air defense systems, and MiG-29 aircraft. Slovakia has given Ukraine 13 batches of military aid worth €671 million since 2022, before Fico took office.
Robert Fico is known for pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian statements. His comments on fund-raising have angered the Slovak activists.
“Prime Minister Fico has insulted all the supporters of the initiative, especially 99-year-old Otto Simko.” The initiative responded by comparing the levy to a “fart.”
“At the same time, we perceive this as a poisonous message to the Czech side, which is all the worse because Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Defense Minister Jana Černohová have expressed strong and clear support for the initiative. Our main goal was to symbolically get Slovakia to join the Czech initiative, and we achieved that. “We have shown that Slovakia is neither cowardly nor ungrateful, and if not for the government, then civil society can make it clear that it knows where the north is,” the initiative adds.
By the end of April, the Slovak activists raised almost 4 million euros.
The campaign’s co-organizer, Zuzana Izáková, says that the fund-raising will be open-ended, with the proceeds going to the Czech program for ammunition purchases, with the first deliveries to Ukraine anticipated in June.
Leading Ukrainian figures thanked the people of Slovakia, who have raised millions of euros to purchase Ukraine’s ammunition.
