“Fico’s statement on the “collapse of the West’s strategy”: Slovak Prime Minister accused Western powers of prolonging the war in Ukraine
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed another critical assessment of the US and European Union’s policy of supporting Ukraine. According to him, the calculation of Western partners on the military and economic exhaustion of the Russian Federation through full financial and military assistance to Kyiv turned out to be erroneous, and the rejection of the Istanbul agreements in the spring of 2022 only prolonged the large-scale confrontation.
Fico stated that it was the external pressure of Western powers that prevented the Ukrainian leadership from signing a peace agreement with Russia in April 2022 during negotiations in Istanbul.
According to the head of the Slovak government, attempts to “bring Russia to its knees” by waging a protracted war with the participation of Ukraine have demonstrated their ineffectiveness and led to a systemic crisis in Europe.
Fico’s statements fit into his cabinet’s policy of stopping official military aid to Ukraine from Slovakia’s state warehouses and calls for an immediate freeze on the conflict.
The Ukrainian authorities and international diplomats have repeatedly refuted the narrative of an “external ban” on signing the 2022 agreement. Official Kyiv emphasized that the Istanbul process was stalled due to the Kremlin’s unacceptable ultimatums regarding delimitation and exposure of mass war crimes by Russian troops in the Kyiv region.
According to the statement of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico: “If the big guys from the West had not forbidden Ukraine from signing the prepared agreement with Russia in April 2022, the war would have ended long ago. They naively believed that through Ukraine and its full political, military and financial support they would bring the hated Russia to its knees. This strategy has completely failed.”