Russia threatened Slovakia over Ukraine damages pact / The New Voice of Ukraine

Slovakia, along with Hungary, and Bulgaria, remains one of
the only European Union countries that has not joined an agreement establishing
an International Claims Commission for Ukraine. The mechanism was adopted in
The Hague in December 2025 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to
consider claims seeking compensation for war-related damage. The document has
been signed by 40 parties, including the EU as a bloc.

In July, it appeared that Bratislava was ready to move
forward with the signing. However, Prime Minister Robert Fico personally halted
the process.

According to SaS MP Ivan Novotny, the Slovak Embassy in
Moscow received a threatening phone call July 10. The caller warned that if
Slovakia signed the agreement, Russia would view it as a “hostile step.”

The caller was Andrei Sharashkin, a Russian Foreign Ministry
official responsible for Slovakia and neighboring countries, according to
Slovak outlet SME. Slovakia’s ambassador to Russia, Peter Priputen, reported
the call to the Foreign Ministry leadership and warned of a potentially harsher
reaction from the Kremlin. He also said the Russians did not appear to attach
major importance to the call.

The agreement was scheduled to be the second item on the
government’s agenda at its Aug. 26 meeting. Novotny said Fico personally
interrupted the discussion without debate and immediately moved to the next
item. The lawmaker said he received the information from a source in the
Foreign Ministry and verified it with another source in Slovak diplomatic
circles.

Fico’s government categorically denies that the document was
removed from the agenda. According to its official position, the discussion was
merely postponed until a later meeting so officials could gather additional
information about how the agreement would be implemented. The government says
it plans to make a decision in the coming days.

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