{"id":403998,"date":"2025-09-07T01:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T01:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/403998\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T01:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T01:05:10","slug":"days-after-meeting-putin-slovakias-fico-reiterates-support-for-ukrainian-eu-membership-novaya-gazeta-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/403998\/","title":{"rendered":"Days after meeting Putin, Slovakia\u2019s Fico reiterates support for Ukrainian EU membership \u2014 Novaya Gazeta Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has reiterated his country\u2019s support for Ukraine\u2019s efforts to join the European Union, just days after he met Vladimir Putin in Beijing, Slovakian independent news outlet Aktuality reported<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

Fico\u2019s comments came after he traveled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, where the pair also discussed energy policy, Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, and European defence policy. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want Ukraine to join the EU. I have offered to share our experience in accession talks,\u201d Fico said at a press conference after the meeting, Aktuality reported. <\/p>\n

Thanking Fico on Telegram for what he described<\/a> as a \u201cmeaningful conversation,\u201d Zelensky emphasised the importance of Slovakia\u2019s support for Ukraine\u2019s EU membership and noted that energy independence and European security were two areas in which the two countries could potentially cooperate in the future. <\/p>\n

While united on Ukraine\u2019s EU aspirations, Kyiv and Bratislava\u2019s differences became clearer during the press conference, with Zelensky flatly stating<\/a> that he had turned down Fico\u2019s request that Ukraine stop attacking Russian oil and gas facilities that supply energy to Slovakia. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ready to supply gas and oil to Slovakia, as long as it is not Russian gas or Russian oil. That\u2019s it,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn energy \u2026 we really do have diametrically different points of view,\u201d Fico said during the press conference, adding that while he respected Zelensky\u2019s point of view, he also expected Zelensky to respect his.<\/p>\n

Fico was the only EU leader to attend a military parade<\/a> hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday, ostensibly marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, but widely seen as a projection of Chinese military might and political influence. <\/p>\n

Following a meeting with Putin in Beijing the day before the parade, Fico spoke warmly of Russia\u2019s energy exports to Slovakia at a joint press conference, and floated possible Russian support for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Slovakia, according<\/a> to Czech news outlet Idnes.<\/p>\n

In December, Fico, who is widely seen as sympathetic to the Kremlin, became only the third EU leader to meet with Putin in Russia since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, after Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer<\/a> in April 2022 and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a> in July 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has reiterated his country\u2019s support for Ukraine\u2019s efforts to join the European Union,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[43050,2000,299,5187,43045,25781,43048,43049,43047,43043,43046,2046,43044,657,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-403998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-azar","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-gorbachev","13":"tag-investigation","14":"tag-kostyuchenko","15":"tag-latynina","16":"tag-martynov","17":"tag-novaya-gazeta-europe","18":"tag-politkovskaya","19":"tag-putin","20":"tag-stories","21":"tag-ukraine","22":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115160332571208740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}