Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico criticized the EU’s new leadership over their supporting words for Ukraine during a press conference on Dec. 2.
Fico said he had called European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to convey to her his disagreement.
The Slovak prime minister has repeatedly criticized the EU's support for Ukraine and said he would seek to normalize relations with Russia after the war.
EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas and the new president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, visited Kyiv on Dec. 1. They reiterated the EU’s support for Ukraine, upsetting the Slovak prime minister.
"Neither members of the Commission nor the president of the European Council can permit themselves to make statements, in the name of the European Union, on which the European Union and the European Council have never agreed," Fico was quoted as saying.
"They made statements that did not correspond to the conclusions of the European Union."
During a news conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky following their meeting in Kyiv, Costa said that the EU would continue to provide economic, humanitarian, and military assistance to Ukraine, including 4.2 billion euros ($4.4 billion) to support the Ukrainian budget by the end of the year. In 2025, the EU will also transfer 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) to Ukraine monthly.
A Russian-friendly populist, Fico halted military aid to Ukraine from the Slovak Armed Forces' stocks after taking office in September 2023 in a stark foreign policy reversal. He recently announced he had accepted the Kremlin's invitation to attend the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow next May.
Oleksiy Sorokin
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