Slovak PM Fico Calls for EU-Russia Dialogue to Resolve Ukraine Conflict

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has called for a dialogue between the European Union and Russia for the sake of resolving the conflict in Ukraine and maintaining peace in Europe.

"We need to engage in dialogue [with Russia], because without it a single stray drone - and there are plenty of them lately, mostly Ukrainian ones - can cause a World War Three. Sometimes I feel like there is someone, who is waiting for an accidental provocative act to happen, or who is directly plotting such an act," he said in a video address posted on Facebook (banned in Russia, owned by Meta, a company designated as extremist by Moscow). "If anyone in the EU has grown tired of 80 years of peace, that’s certainly not me."

Fico suggested that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s initiative to grant the status of an ‘associate member’ to Ukraine may be an attempt to make EU a party at the negotiating table on Ukraine.

"We all know that Ukraine is not ready for EU membership," he said, adding that other candidates, including southern Balkan states, were more prepared.

"Is Merz’s proposal a part of peace talks, which the EU would like to initiate? Will Ukraine immediately enter the talks and will become more eager to make concessions to Russia if it gets the status of an associate EU member? If Ukraine’s associated membership is the price to pay for peace, then the German chancellor’s proposal gets an entirely new dimension. I’ve asked these questions, but no one has answered them yet. I hope that there will be a more frank conversation on the subject during the [EU-West Balkans] summit in Montenegro [on June 5]," the premier said.

In his opinion, Ukraine "should voluntarily signal its consent" to terms of a possible peace agreement.

"Let’s do our best to kickstart the dialogue [on resolving the Ukrainian conflict]," he said. "The EU is plagued by unimaginable hypocrisy. In fact, I’m the only one in the EU at this point who stays in touch with both parties to the conflict [in Ukraine]," Fico said.