Fico vows to stop sending weapons to Ukraine if he returns to power in Slovakia

Slovak populist left-wing leader and former Prime Minister, Robert Fico, whose party is leading in Slovakia’s early parliamentary election campaign, plans to withdraw military and political support for Ukraine.

The Smer-SD party leader, Fico, said this in an interview with the AP agency before a recent rally. 

Fico, who led Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018, is a leading contender for the post of prime minister after the September 30 election. Fico and his left-wing populist Smer party campaigned with clear pro-Russian and anti-American messages.

Read also: Pro-Russian party has high chance of winning Slovakia election, but 30% of voters still undecided

“If Smer is part of the government, we will no longer send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine,” Fico said.

In an interview with the agency, he said that no amount of Western weapons coming to Ukraine would change the war’s course. 

Fico said that the European Union and the United States should use their influence to force Russia and Ukraine to reach a compromise “peace deal”.

“It is naive to think that Russia will leave Crimea,” Fico said, adding that it is “naive to think that Russia will ever give up the territory it controls” in Ukraine.

In his speeches, Fico repeats the Russian war propaganda narrative about the causes of the war in Ukraine, including Putin’s baseless claim that the current Ukrainian government is running a Nazi state where ethnic Russians allegedly need protection.

Read also about the link between Fico and Russia: Leaked Babakov’s emails shed light on Gazprom projects in the EU and Slovakia.

Almost all opinion polls predict that Smer-SD will take first place in the early parliamentary elections, with around 20% of the vote. But Fico will then need the support of several small parties to form a government. And this task will be challenging. 

However, halting the weapons supply goes against not only the common Europe’s policy on Russia’s war and support for Ukraine but also against Slovakian economic interests. 

Slovakia’s key weapons production companies’ profits quadrupled in 2022 compared to the previous year, with corporations stating that the spectacular results are attributable to the Russia-Ukraine war and military supplies to Ukraine.

This might shatter Slovakia’s defence industry, resulting in the loss of arm manufacturing contracts. It may also jeopardise Slovakia’s ability to participate in munitions production for Ukraine and EU states’ stockpiles through the EU budget.

Read also: Slovakia election: Fico focuses his campaign on anti-Ukraine, pro-Russian narratives

The EU members agreed in March this year on a two-billion-euro plan to supply ammunition from their stockpiles and put joint orders for shell production. The goal was to provide Ukraine with one million rounds of ammunition within a year.

On March 20, the European Union Council approved a plan to supply Ukraine with one million artillery ammunition over 12 months. This ammunition will be manufactured in EU countries by arms manufacturers.