Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico appears to have U-turned over the pressing issue of delivering weapons to war-torn Ukraine, in what will come as a disaster to Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The Slovak politician, who was also Prime Minister between 2006 and 2010 and then again from 2012 and 2018, hit out at the support provided so far by Slovakia during the months-long electoral campaign that happened last summer.
Among other pledges, he promised his voters not to send “another bullet” to Ukraine, voiced his opposition to Kyiv joining NATO and lamented the EU sanctioning Russia over its illegal invasion.
Nevertheless, the parliament of the EU member state backed on Tuesday an amendment introduced by Mr Fico’s government empowering the Defence Ministry to approve arms exports – a move leaving public and private weapons companies free to continue arming Ukraine.
Mr Fico’s apparent decision to walk back on one of his main election pledges didn’t surprise his critics.
Jaroslav Naď, who was the Defence Minister during the previous Slovakian government, told Politico: “The oligarchs who are behind Smer [Mr Fico’s party] from the defence sector gain a lot from being able to sell their products in Ukraine, and it was always clear they were going to continue with their supplies.”
During the first seven months of 2023 alone, ammunition maker ZVS Holding earned €4million (£3.45m) more than throughout the whole of 2022, when its revenues amounted to €44m (£37.74m). This company is jointly owned by the private MSM Group and the DMD Group, which is instead owned by the Slovakian Ministry of Defence.
The legislation has also been blasted by Mr Fico’s critics as it hands Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák arms export veto.
Mr Kaliňák had previously served as interior minister but, much like Mr Fico, was forced to leave public office in 2018 amid public outrage following the death of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová.
Months later, the now Defence Minister founded a company focused on the sales of weapons and ammunition – the headquarters of which were registered at the same address as the MSM Group.
While this new legislation is good news for Ukraine at a time when aid from the US and the EU is being delayed, it clearly clashes with declarations made by Mr Fico in the months before his September 30 election.
In April, during a gathering attended by EU, US and UK ambassadors to Slovakia, Mr Fico said: “Weapons only prolong military conflicts that don’t have military solutions, and will lead to hundreds of thousands of additional deaths.”
Only weeks later, however, the newly-elected Prime Minister suggested he was already softening his position.
During a meeting with Mr Kaliňák in November, he said: “If some company wants to manufacture weapons and export them somewhere, of course no one is going to prevent them from doing so.”
