Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, has said Warsaw may “forgive” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s planned visit to Moscow if he helps unblock EU aid for Ukraine.
Fico’s planned trip to the Russian capital for the annual May 9 Victory Day commemorations of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II has already caused diplomatic waves in the EU.
Poland and the Baltic states refused to allow his plane to fly through their airspace for the visit, forcing him to fly through the Czech Republic instead.
Fico’s planned visit to Moscow comes amid a backdrop of hampering EU aid to Ukraine, including a crucial loan of €90 billion.
Sikorski referred to the trip in comments at the Defence24 Days security conference in Warsaw on Wednesday.
“I read an interview with Prime Minister Fico a few days ago,” Sikorski was quoted as saying by Slovakia’s national news agency, TASR. “He actually sounded very positive. If he unblocks aid to Ukraine but also goes to Russia, maybe we can forgive him.”
‘Not a single bullet’
Fico has been a stalwart opponent of aid to Ukraine, vowing when he took office in 2023 that “not a single bullet” would be provided by Bratislava.
Along with former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, another EU leader with strong pro-Moscow sympathies, Fico has wielded his EU veto to hamper military and financial aid to Kyiv as well as sanctions on Moscow.
Fico has also vociferously questioned Ukraine’s EU membership ambitions, a stance he appeared to have softened in recent days.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the weekend that Fico had assured him that Slovakia now supports Kyiv’s EU bid, as relations between the two neighbors show signs of warming.
Fico and Zelenskyy met at the European Political Community summit in Yerevan, Armenia, on Monday during which the planned €90 billion EU loan package for Ukraine was discussed and the Slovak prime minister assured Ukraine’s leadership Bratislava “will not stand in the way.”