Slovakia says it's halting its delivery of weapons to Ukraine
Slovakia, a small Eastern European nation that has been in the vanguard of sending arms to Ukraine, says it is halting all military aid to its embattled neighbor, a policy shift that is unlikely to change the balance of forces on the battlefield but that delivers a symbolic blow to Ukraine at a time of growing fatigue in parts of Europe after 20 months of war.
Slovakia's newly appointed prime minister, Robert Fico, announced Thursday in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, that while he supported “comprehensive” nonmilitary aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia, “I will be supporting zero military aid to Ukraine.”
That would make Slovakia the first among those countries that have sent weapons to Ukraine since the war broke out to say it would stop. Slovakia's commercial defense contracts with Ukraine for Slovak-made artillery and other defense systems, however, are expected to continue.
Fico, who made his remarks to a parliamentary committee on European Union affairs, did not say whether Slovakia, which shares a border with Ukraine and has rail and road links to the country, would continue to serve as a transit route for weapons supplied by other Western countries. Poland has been the main transit country for such shipments, but Slovakia has also been used to deliver weapons from the Czech Republic and some other countries.
Fico, who later visited
Brussels on Thursday for a summit of European leaders, declined to speak to journalists. Ukrainian officials did not immediately make any public comments about his announcement.
But Fico's remarks stirred outrage among some of Slovakia's fellow EU members that have been firm in their support for Ukraine.
In Lithuania, a Baltic country that has been one of Ukraine's most stalwart backers, the chair of the national security and defense committee in parliament, Laurynas Kasciunas, said, “This decision may not have a practical impact on the ongoing conflict, but it poisons the unity of the Western nations striving to support Ukraine.”
Fico, a pugnacious former prime minister, eked out a narrow victory in general elections last month after campaigning on a promise “not to send a single cartridge” of ammunition to Ukraine. His Smer party, which started out on the left but increasingly embraced right-wing views on immigration and cultural issues, aligned with pro-Russian forces during the campaign, largely in response to the exuberantly pro-Ukrainian positions of his political rivals.
Slovakia was the first country to send air-defense systems to Ukraine under a previous government led by Fico's liberal and centrist opponents, and it led the way, along with Poland, in pushing for greater Western military assistance. But with its stock of dispensable weapons and warplanes largely depleted by deliveries to Ukraine, Slovakia has little left to give.