“It was an obvious mistake for Fico to believe that his shadowy schemes with Moscow could go on indefinitely,” he wrote, adding that although Kyiv offered its assistance to Slovakia, Fico “arrogantly refused.”
Fico began Monday’s video statement, also released as an open letter, by saying he wouldn’t comment on Zelenskyy’s remarks because he didn’t want to “further escalate tensions.” He reiterated that the decision to stop the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine was causing “extensive damage to Ukraine itself, to Slovakia and to the European Union in particular.”
“I want to fully focus on resolving the situation related to the suspension of gas transit,” Fico wrote. He added that his views on several areas differed from those presented by Zelenskyy, but that the joint negotiations between the Slovak and Ukrainian governments were moving toward resolving the debate.
The conflict has escalated beyond the gas dispute, with Slovakia’s agriculture minister accusing Ukraine of being the source of the largest cyberattack on Slovakia to date, which hit the country’s land registry and shut down an agency that manages land and property data.
The fallout has also heightened tensions within the Bratislava government, with Slovakia’s coalition facing a crisis: While Fico’s Smer party and the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS) support parts of Moscow’s international agenda, the social democratic Hlas (Voice) party maintains a critical stance toward Russia.
The crisis has also highlighted the strained relations between Fico and Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, the former head of Hlas and an increasingly vocal critic of the prime minister.
Fico gave his partners a March deadline to resolve their current impasse.