Robert Fico 🇸🇰
@RobertFicoSVK
REACTION OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC, ROBERT FICO, TO THE BLACKMAILING BEHAVIOR OF UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY
I express full solidarity with the Prime Minister of Hungary,
@PM_ViktorOrban
. If the Ukrainian president continues like this, it may happen that other EU member states will also block the 90-billion loan for Ukraine.
And I officially ask all the highest representatives of the European Union and I will be very specific:
👉🏻 the President of the European Commission,
@vonderleyen
👉🏻 the President of the European Council,
@eucopresident
👉🏻 and also the so-called EU foreign affairs chief,
@kajakallas
☝🏻 to distance themselves from these outrageous blackmailing statements of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
TRANSCRIPT BEGINS~~~
Robert Fico (Prime Minister of Slovak Republic): Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for coming here to this place only at this moment, even though I have been in the cultural house for quite some time already.
It is not appropriate for politicians to spoil a nice celebration, but I have to say something at the beginning, which is why I am now a few minutes late.
About 5 minutes ago I saw a shocking video of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky (@30 second mark): "We hope that one person in the EU will not block the 90 million, or the first tranche of the 90 billion, and that Ukrainian soldiers will have weapons.
Otherwise we will give this person's address to our armed forces, to our boys.
Let them call him and communicate with him in their own language."
Robert Fico (Prime Minister of Slovak Republic): In a video in which he directly threatens Viktor Orban because the Hungarian government is currently blocking a 90-billion military loan for Ukraine.
This is a loan in which we also did not participate and will not participate, just like the Czech Republic and Hungary.
It is unacceptable for President Zelensky to think that we are his servants and that we must do everything he expects.
We help him in everything. On the contrary, he harms us.
He caused us 500 million in damages when it comes to gas transit fees.
Now he has stopped oil.
He claims that the oil pipeline is damaged, although satellite images show this is clearly not the case.
And he even allowed himself to say publicly that he would give Victor Orban's address to soldiers of the Ukrainian army, and that Victor Orban would probably understand the language that those soliders would speak.
This is crude blackmail.
This is something that, regardless of the fact that there is a war in Ukraine, we must all reject.
And I am using this opportunity, because we always record these events so that we have proof that they are normal meetings.
And I officially ask all the highest members of the European Union and I will be very specific:
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen,
The President of the European Council, Antonio Costa,
And also the so-called EU foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas,
- to distance themselves from these outrageous blackmailing statements of the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.
He has crossed all red lines and we as a sovereign country must speak up.
We must speak up even though we do not have large armies and we do not have great economic power.
But we have our sovereignty, we have our pride.
And we fundamentally reject such behavior.
Let this message go from here, from Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, to all of Europe and to the wide world.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say this.
*applause*
TRANSCRIPT ENDS~~~~~