The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has slammed populist Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico for being “unable to comprehend” the causes of the full-scale war Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022. 

Before returning to power in the autumn of 2023, Fico and the nominally leftist Smer party moved deep into national conservative waters and adopted pro-Kremlin propaganda talking points about Russia being “provoked” into invading Ukraine. 

“After more than three years of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico still cannot realise the real causes of this criminal invasion and the danger of cooperating with aggressor state,” the Ukrainian MFA wrote in a statement. 

The ministry issued the statement in response to Fico’s remarks at the weekend about US President Donald Trump's announcement that he will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. 

In response to Trump’s announcement, Fico wrote on his Facebook social media profile earlier that he and his Smer party were correct in “practically everything” about the war and that “Ukraine will pay dearly for the unsuccessful strategy of the West to weaken Russia through support of the war in Ukraine”.  

“It is regrettable that a head of the EU member state can resort to openly attacking rhetoric against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people who continue to heroically withstand the Russian aggression and defend their country in the security interest of the European continent,” the statement by the Ukrainian MFA continued, recalling Fico’s earlier anti-Ukrainian rhetoric. 

The statement also warned against “the use of enemy folklore analogies and the attempts to increase domestic political ranking at Ukraine’s expense, adding it "insults the memory of the fallen, suffering of millions of Ukrainian families and sacrifice of those who fight for freedom."

Fico has intensified his pro-Kremlin turn since last autumn amid the faltering popularity of his Smer party. He also made unprecedented appearances in the Russian state media, travelled to Moscow for the WWII anniversary military parade in May, and delayed the latest 18th EU sanctions package against Russia until July. 

The Ukrainian MFA concluded that “Ukraine esteems the all-sided support of our international partners, who defend the basis of territorial integrity of sovereign states, the rule of international law and the maintenance of global order based on rules.”

Fico was quick to issue his statement in response, saying “no one will take away the right to free speech and to have other than obligatory view from me”, alleging that last year’s assassination attempt against him was carried out because of “my view on the war in Ukraine”. 

He also claimed that “the war in Ukraine deformed free speech in the EU”, adding that “any other than a mandatory view is sharply criticised and condemned even though it comes from objective information.”  

Fico has been regularly victimising himself in his public statements, and he also made baseless accusations of opposition involvement in the assassination attempt.

In the statement published on his Facebook page in response to the Ukrainian MFA comments, Fico also recalled that “the Slovak Republic is among the leading countries with the most intensive help for Ukraine” relative to “the power of the Slovak economy”.

Slovakia remained an active supplier of humanitarian aid for Ukraine as well as commercial military exports to Ukraine despite Fico’s and Smer’s anti-Ukrainian rhetoric.