Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he is ready to "take over" from Hungary in blocking a EUR 90 billion loan from the European Union for Ukraine if the party of incumbent Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán loses the election.
He said this in a video message on Facebook.
The Slovakian prime minister said that on March 10 he would meet with the head of the European Commission and raise the issue of the Druzhba oil pipeline. In particular, he plans to propose to force the Ukrainian side to visit the site of the alleged damage to the pipeline and offer the country's services in its repair if "some screw needs to be tightened."
"But the most important message will be that Slovakia is ready to take over from Hungary, if necessary. Currently, the EUR 90 billion military loan to Ukraine is actually blocked. But I am not naive.
The President of Ukraine has recently been talking about resuming supplies in a month or a month and a half, that is, after the elections in Hungary, where he expects the opposition to win. Then there will be no chance for oil from the east, unless someone else takes over the Hungarian baton. Blocking this huge military gift to Ukraine is a legitimate tool to achieve the resumption of oil supplies," Fico said in a statement.
Among other things, he also recalled Zelenskyy's words about giving Viktor Orbán's address to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and said that it "crosses all red lines." He also added that the mentioned EUR 90 billion loan is a "mere gift":
"Because Ukraine will not return anything from these EUR 90 billion, just as it will not return anything from the next EUR 100 billion."
We would like to remind you that the leader of the Hungarian opposition party Tisa, Peter Magyar, also defended Viktor Orbán and called on the Ukrainian president to apologize and retract his words about passing the Hungarian prime minister's address to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on February 22, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to stop emergency electricity supply if Ukraine does not resume oil supplies to his country.
On March 3, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán appealed to the European Commission to influence Ukraine to resume oil transit, which was suspended in late January due to damage to infrastructure caused by russian shelling.
On March 5, Orbán also said that he would not compromise with Ukraine and would end the "Ukrainian blockade" of the Druzhba pipeline by force.
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