PM: If Different Opinion Is Disrespected, European Council Might Fail to Agree

Bratislava, March 1 (TASR) - If the extraordinary EU summit doesn't respect that some countries have a different opinion on the continuation of the war in Ukraine, the European Council might fail to agree on conclusions on Ukraine on Thursday (6 March), Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has posted on a social network in reaction to Friday's (February 28) clash between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump. "Slovakia won't support Ukraine either financially or militarily to continue the war. If others do so, we'll respect it. Slovakia has reservations about the unrealistic 'peace through force' strategy, which should only serve as a reason for continuing the war in Ukraine. Ukraine will never be strong enough to negotiate from a military strength position. Slovakia proposes, among other things, the necessity of an immediate ceasefire (regardless of the moment of reaching a final peace agreement) to be included in the EU summit conclusions, which is, however, rejected by President Zelenskyy and a major part of EU countries," wrote Fico. According to the premier, Slovakia will also require that there is an explicit demand for Ukraine to resume gas transit to Europe in the summit conclusions. He claims that Europe's competitiveness can't be ensured without Russian gas flowing via Ukraine. Zelenskyy prematurely left negotiations with Trump on Friday, after Trump wrote that the Ukrainian president wasn't ready for peace. This was preceded by a harsh exchange of opinions between the two leaders in the Oval Office of the White House. ko