Fico: EU Must Sober Up on War in Ukraine and Be Sovereign in Opinions

Bratislava, February 13 (TASR) - The European Union (EU) will have to sober up quickly from its "military madness" and realise that it must be sovereign in its opinions and attitudes if it is to survive, said Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) in reaction to a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Fico, the Union has no idea about the relationship between the USA and Russia. He criticised the EU for going on a "total offensive" in the war in Ukraine. What happens in Ukraine will be decided by Trump and Putin, he stated. "We in the EU have no idea what's actually happening in relations between the USA and Russia, which are absolutely crucial for ending the military conflict. I don't know if it isn't a bit awkward when some EU-member states and EU institutions are today demanding a seat at the peace table," said Fico in a statement provided to TASR by the Government Office. He claimed that those who "unwaveringly" supported further and further killings in Ukraine are defenceless in the EU today. "After all that, in how much of a military manner the EU peace project behaved, how much money and love it gave to Ukraine, no one is talking to the EU today," said Fico. Fico noted that after his phone call with Putin, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to tell him what awaited him. "It is, for example, something as unimaginable as democratic elections," he said. According to Fico, the EU is the second loser after Ukraine. "This is simply because it has no opinion of its own on fundamental foreign-political issues to date," stated Fico, adding that the Union was only blindly copying the administration of former US president Joe Biden when it came to the war in Ukraine. Fico said that President Trump will claim back from Ukraine everything that Biden gave to it while supporting it in the war. "He will force Europe to take even more gas and oil from the USA, and at the end of the day he will tell the NATO allies that unless they brutally increase their defence spending, for example, to 5 percent of GDP, they can forget about Article 5 of the NATO treaty," stated the Slovak premier. President Putin will be left with territory in Ukraine that he controls militarily and a guarantee that Ukraine will never become a NATO member. And what about Ukraine? It will lose a third of its territory, its mineral wealth, it will never be in NATO, and foreign armies will be present on its territory," added Fico. Putin and Trump officially spoke on the phone on Wednesday (February 12) for the first time since the latter assumed office. They reportedly concurred on the need to immediately begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. ko/df