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Volodymyr Zelensky says that, after speaking to Robert Fico by phone, the Slovak prime minister will support Ukraine’s EU membership bid. He also reported that he had invited Fico to Kyiv, and that Fico had invited him to Bratislava, and that both had accepted the invitations.
“We want strong relations between our countries, and we are both committed to that. It was important to hear that Slovakia supports Ukraine’s EU membership and is ready to share its own experience of the accession process,” the Ukrainian president wrote in a statement.
In the meantime, it emerged that they will meet as early as Monday at the European Political Community summit in Yerevan, Fico announced on Saturday.
However, in his Saturday statement, the Slovak prime minister did not mention what he had discussed with the Ukrainian president regarding Ukraine’s EU membership. The only detail he made public about what had happened was that, although he and the Ukrainian president do not see eye to eye on certain issues, Slovakia wants Ukraine to be a stable and democratic country, with which it maintains friendly relations.
Up to now, Robert Fico has aligned with the outgoing Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, on Ukraine, even if he has not always joined him in blocking EU decisions. He nonetheless played a major role in the weeks-long stand-off over the Druzhba oil pipeline. Beating the Hungarian government to it, he suspended electricity exports to Ukraine and later, like the Hungarian government, also halted fuel shipments.
Overall, Fico is trying to strike a balance between the commitments assumed within Western alliances and the pro-Russian electorate at home. In practice, this means he is pursuing a cautious, but not completely hostile, policy towards Ukraine.