Slovakia Is Arming Ukraine Even Though It Doesn’t Want To

8 comments

1. > **Government hopes industry revival can help economic growth
   > Slovakia maintains stance against military aid to Ukraine**
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   > **Slovakia’s defense minister is pushing for a major boost to ammunition production. Yet while his government steadfastly refuses to arm Ukraine, Slovak-made shells are ending up there.**
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   > The central European country aims to increase production of large caliber ammunition shells to 200,000 next year from 125,000 expected this year, said Robert Kalinak, defense minister and a close ally of Prime Minister Robert Fico.
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   > But the government doesn’t have complete control over where the shells end up as it is up to buyers to decide what to do with the ammunition they bought, according to the minister.
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   > Kalinak denied that the sale of Slovak-made shells to Ukraine either directly or through third parties contradicts the position of the government, which opposes military aid to Kyiv.
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   > It is a position which makes Slovakia, along with fellow NATO member Hungary, an outlier on the alliance’s eastern flank.
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   > “Our political declaration states that we won’t give free military aid to Ukraine, because by doing that we would be supporting the conflict,” Kalinak, 53, said in an interview. “But we won’t limit defense production when it supports gross domestic product, because by doing that, I’d be harming the interests of Slovakia.”
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   > The defense industry should contribute about 2% to the nation’s economic growth this year, according to the minister. It’s a chance to improve Slovakia’s economy and public finances, he said.
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   > “From a historic point of view, this is the way that I very much want to take,” he said in Dubnica nad Vahom, a town in western Slovakia which is home to an ammunition and arms-making plant. “The defense industry is one with high added value.”
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   > Kalinak came to the spotlight earlier this year when he stood in for Slovak prime minister after the latter was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt in May. Fico returned to work earlier this month.
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   > “He certainly sees life from a different angle now,” Kalinak said of Fico after his recovery. “I think he realizes, and we all know that too, that every word he says carries ten times more weight than ever before.”
   > An Ammunition Renaissance
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   > Dubnica nad Vahom, where Kalinak spoke on Thursday, is one of a handful of towns around Slovakia which once housed vast ammunition plants supplying the armies of the Warsaw Pact.
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   > The collapse of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet-led military alliance nearly eliminated the biggest arms producers in what was then the eastern part of Czechoslovakia.
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   > In the early 1990s, production dropped by 90%, leaving tens of thousands of people jobless and the sprawling abandoned arms factories monuments to the sector’s demise.
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   > But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with which Slovakia shares a 97-kilometer (60 mile) border, has rekindled interest in the arms industry and prompted Slovak companies to try to boost production.
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   > The increase in production projected by Kalinak compares with about 20,000 rounds of 155mm shells anually before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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   > Read More: NATO’s Call for Weapons Offers Hope to Town That Armed the Enemy
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   > When Fico’s cabinet came to power last October, it said it would inject €100 million ($109 million) into revitalizing the industry that also produces howitzers and mortars. Now Kalinak is thinking ahead and would like Slovak companies to be involved at every step of the supply chain for ammunition production. That goal will take years to achieve, he said without elaborating.
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   > Fico’s government halted direct military supplies to Ukraine from its own stocks. His predecessors sent ammunition, tanks, S-300 and even a fleet of MiG-29 jets to Ukraine. However, at the same time Fico said that his government would not block supplies of weapons and ammunition from private manufacturers.
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   > Former Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said that the vast majority of production from Slovak factories manufacturing 155mm ammunition goes to Ukraine.
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   > “In 2023, practically the entire production capacity for the next three years was sold out to Ukraine, either directly or through other countries,” he said.
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   > While that move has helped Kyiv replenish its ammunition stocks, Slovakia remains highly skeptical of welcoming Ukraine further into the western fold.
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   > Fico strongly opposes Ukraine’s membership in NATO, even though Slovakia signed a declaration at the NATO summit in Washington which envisages a future for Ukraine within the alliance.
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   > The Slovak government will never vote for Ukraine’s entry into NATO if such a motion is tabled, said the defense minister.
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   > “Voters in Slovakia said they want to follow our view that we presented in the elections and that is putting Slovakia and not Ukraine or Russia first,” Kalinak said.
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   > “I can’t imagine Ukraine’s entry into NATO, because Ukraine will never change its borders. It won’t ever share borders with Germany or Switzerland, it will always have Russia as its neighbor,” said the minister.

2. > “Our political declaration states we won’t give free military aid to Ukraine, because by doing that we would be supporting the conflict…”

   > “…but we won’t limit defence production when it supports gross domestic product, because by doing that, I’d be harming the interests of Slovakia.”

   So you do support the conflict as long as it’s in your interests. War is always good for the coffers. Just say you support Ukraine and want to increase production due to the threat of invasion. Easy.

3. Thank you Slovakia? You are my best friend?

   You are the peacekeeper? You are the legend?

4. And Minister of Defence having a business in ammo/arms production is just a coincidence and does not have any impact on or benefit from it.

5. Truly a Slovakia moment.

6. These sleazeballs in our government our profit oriented lunatics with no regard for common man’s life. Plus I’m pretty sure Putin’s Russia is holding their balls very tightly.

   No use in looking at what they say, at all. Their actions speak louder.

7. Western media keep misrepresenting Fico as right wing and pro Russia. He is neither. He is a plain and simple populist. He’ll say whatever gets him the most votes.  
   The reason why said he would stop all military aid to Ukraine was because Russian disinformation held a strong influence over Slovak voters and saying so got him more votes. He doesn’t actually care one way or another.  

   It was the same in his previous term. He won on strong euro-skeptic rhetoric but then kept silently rubber stamping all EU decisions (including aid package to Greece and similar stuff). He did it because it was easier to win elections with that rhetoric but then it was easier to govern without opposing EU.  

   What he really wants is keep awarding juicy government contracts and EU grants to his friends without any disturbance.

8. Fico is no Orban. Fico says one thing domestically and then does something completely different. These weapon deliveries are one thing.

   They went to the NATO meeting and approved membership for Ukraine, then at home Fico says, “Ukraine joining NATO will lead to WW3”.