Slovakia’s Fico: ‘Ukraine will not be invited to join NATO’

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has stated that Ukraine will not be invited to join NATO, and that Russia will not withdraw its troops from the occupied Crimean peninsula or other parts of Ukraine. He was speaking at an address to Slovakia’s Parliamentary Committee for European Affairs on Wednesday.

“Ukraine won’t be invited to NATO. It will lose a third of its territory. There will be foreign military forces there,” the prime minister said.

While Fico acknowledged that Moscow had violated international law by carrying out its invasion, he largely blamed the West for pushing Ukraine “into a bad situation”.

He made the remarks ahead of his trip to a European Council event in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday, where EU leaders will be meeting to discuss Ukraine, the Middle East, migration and foreign policy, among other issues.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also scheduled to visit Brussels and meet with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European leaders. Their discussions will aim to strengthen Ukraine’s defences against Russian forces.

This marks the second time in the space of a few months that Prime Minister Fico has publicly made such comments. He previously said in October that he would not allow Ukraine to become a member of NATO as long as he was prime minister.

“I will direct the lawmakers under my control as chairman of the (ruling Smer) party never to agree to Ukraine joining NATO,” he told broadcaster STVR in an interview at the time.

Robert Fico, known for his pro-Russia stance and criticism of Ukraine’s sanctions on Russia, including those targeting Lukoil, was reappointed as Slovakia’s prime minister in 2023. In parallel, Fico decided to end Slovakia’s military aid to Ukraine.

“We see aid to Ukraine solely as humanitarian and civilian aid, and we will no longer supply Ukraine with arms,” Fico declared.

In his view, “an immediate halt to military operations is the best solution for Ukraine. The EU should move from being an arms supplier to a peacemaker”.

Ukraine believes that NATO membership is the only “real guarantee” for its security. In the mean time, NATO’s foreign ministers await Donald Trump’s second term as US President to begin in order to see how his approach to the issue will pan out.