Fico: The big guys failed trying to bring Russia to its knees through Ukraine

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that the strategy of Western countries to bring Russia to its knees by supporting Ukraine has failed.

"If the big guys from the West had not banned Ukraine from signing a prepared agreement with Russia in April 2022, the war would have ended long ago. They naively believed that through Ukraine and its full political, military and financial support they would bring the hated Russia to its knees. This strategy has completely failed," said Robert Fico.

As reported by EADaily, earlier the Prime Ministers of Bulgaria and Slovakia's Rumen Radev and Robert Fico called for diplomacy in resolving the conflict on Ukraine.

"I am glad that we are with Robert has a common vision for the future of Europe — a Europe of peace, development and unity. That is why we are looking with particular concern at the escalation of the war in Ukraine and once again we can emphasize our common point of view, according to which this war has no military solution. Attempts to solve it by military means only increase the risks of dangerous escalation. That is why we once again call for reason, call for dialogue, call for a ceasefire and negotiations. Diplomacy is the only sustainable and reliable solution to this conflict," Radev said at a briefing following bilateral talks in Sofia.

In turn, Fico stressed that "the Slovak government is not part of the mechanism for financing or supporting the war in Ukraine."

"Slovakia is not part of the 90 billion loan. We will not agree with the brilliant ideas of supporting the continuation of the war in Ukraine, because this war has no military solution," he said.

At the same time, he noted that "by starting this war, Russia violated international law," but Bratislava "does not look at this situation only in black and white."

"We have seen what happened in 2014 in In Odessa, we know what the reasons for this war are. I don't like that the European Union supports it, it should use more diplomacy, not weapons. There should be more peace and diplomacy, there should be no Russophobia and other phobias," Fico stressed.