Slovakia’s newly elected PM Robert Fico stops military aid to Ukraine. And its personal

Slovakia’s newly elected Prime Minister Robert Fico on Thursday announced that they are stopping weapons delivery to Ukraine.

A day after taking charge, Fico told lawmakers that Slovakia would "no longer supply weapons to Ukraine" and would only send humanitarian aid to Kyiv, AFP news agency reported.

"I will support zero military aid to Ukraine ... An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine," said Fico.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

"The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker," he added.

Fico further voiced his opposition to sanctions against Russia.

“I will not vote for any sanctions against Russia unless we see analyses of their impact on Slovakia,” he said.

“If there are to be such sanctions that will harm us, like most sanctions have, I can see no reason to support them.”

In the run-up to the elections, Fico had repeatedly pledged to halt military aid for Ukraine, after the previous Slovak governments shipped military hardware including fighter jets, an S-300 air defence system, and fighting and de-mining vehicles to Ukraine.

Russia's response

Russia immediately dismissed the impact Slovakia's decision to halt military aid to Ukraine.

"Slovakia did not have such a big share in the supply of weapons, so it will hardly affect the entire process," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, when asked about Bratislava's decision.

Slovakia’s volte-face—from pro-Ukraine to pro-Russia—reflects Fico’s fractious personal relations with Kyiv that goes back at least a decade.

Slovakia’s volte-face

In January 2009, when Fico was the prime minister, Slovakia bore the brunt of a long-running spat between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas, and the Russian gas flows across Ukraine to EU countries stopped, a crisis that Slovakia couldn’t afford to ignore in the middle of winter.

The row over gas cost the Slovak economy around €100 million a day, reports Politico, as factories were forced to shut down.

A desperate Fico then called both Vladimir Putin, who was the Russian prime minister at that time, and Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko to get the gas restarted.

Later on January 14, a Slovak delegation led by Fico landed in Kyiv to meet with the Ukrainian government. However, he was made to wait for hours.

Three hours later, the delegation was taken to a meeting which was filled with the members of the press.

During the press briefing, Tymoshenko spent 20 minutes lambasting Fico for taking Moscow's side in the gas dispute.

"It was an absolutely unpleasant situation. Fico was red with anger. It was a disaster," an unnamed senior Slovak official with knowledge of the 2009 developments told Politico outlet.

"He was humiliated," the official added.

The Slovaks then flew on to Moscow, where they were greeted by Putin at an elaborate ceremony held in the Kremlin's opulent St. George's Hall.

According to experts, it was since then he started openly expressing an anti-Ukrainian stance.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE