Slovakia Will Not Join NATO's New Aid Package for Ukraine

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that his country will not participate in NATO's new financial and military aid package for Ukraine. Fico stated that Bratislava will not provide Ukraine with arms and military credit but is open to providing humanitarian aid. The Slovakian Prime Minister expressed that he is following the preparations for the NATO summit in Ankara in July with "great concern". The NATO summit, scheduled to take place in Ankara on July 7-8, is expected to include a commitment in its final declaration for allies to provide Ukraine with approximately 70 billion euros in military aid annually for several years.

I am following the preparations for the NATO summit with great concern, and again I hear that they want to collect money for Ukraine. I'm saying this for the first time in public: I will do everything in my power to prevent Slovakia from participating in military credits for Ukraine.

Fico emphasized that Slovakia will not allocate resources from its own budget for arms and war in Ukraine, but the country is ready to provide humanitarian aid. Moscow claims that the West's arms shipments to Ukraine are complicating the resolution of the conflict and drawing NATO countries directly into the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly stated that any cargo carrying ammunition to Kiev would be a "legitimate target" from Moscow's perspective.