President Zuzana Čaputová moved to prevent the technocratic interim government from sending a shipment of weapons to Ukraine at a time when Robert Fico, who promised not to send “one more bullet”, is trying to form a government.
Čaputová’s strict adherence to the rule of law landed her in hot water with Ukraine on Thursday. While the technocratic Defence Ministry was considering sending a new artillery package before a Smer cabinet could be formed, the president, who is politically responsible for the government, intervened.
“All political parties, which today are negotiating a new government based on a mandate, unequivocally reject such aid. In this situation, deciding to provide military equipment would not be a good precedent for a change of political power after any election. Today or in the future,” the President’s spokesperson wrote to Denník N.
As expected, this decision did not go well with Ukraine, who pointed out that this could have been one of the last chances for Slovakia to send arms to Ukraine before the new government was formed.
“It is important to realise that the influence of Russian agents in Slovakia is absolutely insane,” the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said when asked about the president’s decision.
Jana Kobzová, Foreign Policy Advisor to Čaputová, then went on to clarify Čaputová’s position in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.
“President Čaputová has been a strong supporter of such aid from the very beginning and has communicated with the government regarding its support, including after President Zelenskyy’s recent visit to Slovakia in July,” Kobzová said.
A new study by the Slovak Academy of Sciences shows that Slovakia is experiencing a “solidarity fatigue”. More than half of Slovaks think that Ukraine is being helped “too much” and that aid should be temporary. Over 55% of Slovaks also believe that “arms deliveries only prolong the war”, which the researchers think can be influenced by political rhetoric.
(Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk)
