Robert Fico, the new left populist premier of Slovakia, said on January 20 that he would veto Nato membership for Ukraine. He made the comments in a radio interview ahead of his meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday in Uzhgorod, on the Ukrainian side of the common border.

“I will tell him I am against Ukraine’s membership in Nato and that I will block it and veto it, because it is the basis for World War III and nothing else,” Fico stated during the regular programme of public broadcaster RTVS, Sobotne dialogy (Saturday dialogues).

The statement is a firming up of Fico's previous comments on Ukrainian accession, and a sign of his shift towards Hungarian premier Viktor Orban's hardline position.

The Slovak premier has also ended Slovak government donations of military aid to Kyiv and said that he has severe doubts about Ukrainian accession to the European Union, though it could join if it meets the same conditions as other entrants.

Fico did not join Orban in attempting to block the opening of EU negotiations at the European Council Summit last month. Eventually the impasse was resolved by Orban leaving the room while the rest of the EU member states voted unanimously for negotiations to begin.

In September 2022 Ukraine formally applied for Nato membership. However, it was not given a timetable for membership at last July's Vilnius Summit. Several Nato countries, notably Hungary, would also block membership for Ukraine, and many are unhappy with the idea, at least so long as the war with Russia is ongoing. 

Fico repeated his mantra of Ukraine being a “corrupt country” despite his Smer party facing country-wide protests criticising him for embodying corruption.

Fico reiterated that no Slovak state military aid would be coming to Ukraine. “I am coming with humanitarian aid. I confirm he [Shmyhal] will receive no weapons as far as the Slovak army and state reserves are concerned,” Fico said.

Fico’s cabinet axed state military aid to Ukraine after coming to power in October but said it won’t obstruct commercial military aid to Ukraine.

The Smer party enjoys good long-term relations with the private defence sector in Slovakia. Just last week, Slovak liberal daily DennikN reported that the Ministry of Defence, headed by Fico’s close collaborator Robert Kalinak, sent €100mn to the country’s ammunition producers.

During the interview, Fico also stated, “we respect them [Ukraine] as far as EU entry is concerned, but they have to meet conditions and not that a country which absolutely does not meet any conditions will enter the Union politically”.

Moreover, Fico said that “Ukraine is not a sovereign independent country; Ukraine is under the absolute influence of the United States of America”, adding that the “EU is making a grave mistake in that it doesn’t want to maintain a sovereign view of Ukraine and agrees only with what the USA says”.

Fico’s comments caused a backlash among the opposition, which has also been fiercely opposing the sweeping legislative changes in the country’s judiciary Fico’s cabinet is pushing for.       

In response to the comments, the leader of opposition-leading Progressive Slovakia, Michal Simecka, stated he is “ashamed of such a prime minister” and that Ukraine is also fighting for Slovakia, but Fico is only interested in his “political survival, impunity and revenge”, referring to Fico’s cabinet's series of firings in the public administration and efforts to cement its grip on power in Slovakia.