Slovakia offers 'significant assistance' to Ukraine in demining - Fico
Photo: Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia (Getty Images)
Slovakia wants to assist Ukraine in the field of demining territories, particularly by providing relevant equipment, stated Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico during a press conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
"We discussed cooperation in the military sphere, where we offer significant assistance in demining. This includes specific demining machines. There is a great discussion here about special machines, agricultural machinery that can be used precisely for this purpose," noted Fico.
The Slovak Prime Minister clarified that Slovakia also intends to help in training and preparing personnel to operate such machines. Additionally, Fico reminded that Slovakia is ready to cooperate in the military sector on a commercial basis. This topic was discussed by the Minister of Defense of Slovakia, Robert Kalinak, and the Deputy Minister of Defense, Ivan Havryliuk.
Slovakia's refusal to provide military assistance to Ukraine
Last year, the Direction - Social Democracy party won the elections in Slovakia, and Robert Fico, known for his pro-Russian statements, became the country's Prime Minister.
After Fico became the head of the government, Slovakia stopped providing military aid to Ukraine on a free basis.
However, Slovakia continues to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine. In particular, on November 14 last year, Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs Juraj Blanar said that his country would finance the production of two Bozena-4 demining machines to be transferred to Ukraine.
