Irina Nesterova20:09, 11.01.25
The Prime Minister of Slovakia reproached the Ukrainian leader for begging money from Europe.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has sharply expressed his outrage at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “begging for money from Europe.” He called the Ukrainian leader a “beggar” and a “blackmailer,” according to a video posted on Fico’s Facebook page .
This happened during a meeting of the parliamentary committee, at which the prime minister spoke about the consequences of the termination of Russian gas transit through Ukraine for Slovakia.
At the same time, Fico spoke harshly about Ukrainian President Zelensky, calling him unreliable and saying that he was “fed up with him.”
“I am not here to walk side by side with Zelensky. I admit: I am tired of this. He runs around Europe, begging and blackmailing, asking others for money. It is simply time to put an end to this,” the Slovak Prime Minister said.
Speaking about Russia, he called it a “reliable partner” in the matter of energy supplies, saying, “Russia has never deceived us, unlike Ukraine.”
(C)UNIAN 2025
What does this toerag call threatening to stop electricity supply to Ukraine? Is that not blackmail?
Accusing others of what you’re guilty of is classic ruskie methodology. I hope the Slovakian people will create their version of Euromaidan … Hlavné Námestie Maidan.
Fico sure talks a lot of shit for someone who’s trust ratings are falling like a rock:
“Fico falls to sixth place with only 32.3 percent trust, experiencing a significant drop of 13 percentage points since June.”
Read more:
https://spectator.sme.sk/politics-and-society/c/trust-in-pm-fico-declines-as-rival-gains-popularity
Zelenskyy responds to offensive remarks by Slovak Prime Minister Fico
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has responded to offensive statements made by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, noting that Fico rejected assistance proposed by Kyiv to mitigate the effects of halting Russian gas supplies.
Source: Zelenskyy on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda
Quote: “It’s good that Slovakia’s Prime Minister Fico has finally returned from his vacation at a luxurious hotel in Vietnam and is now in Bratislava. For him, personally, it must be challenging – switching from living in luxury to now trying to fix his own mistakes.”
Details: Zelenskyy criticised the Slovak Prime Minister’s reliance on “shadow schemes” in cooperation with Russia, calling it an obvious mistake.
Quote: “We offered our assistance to the people of Slovakia during their adaptation to the absence of Russian gas transit, but Fico arrogantly refused. Many in Europe warned him that doing nothing and waiting was not an option. Now, he’s resorting to PR, lies and loud accusations to shift the blame away from himself onto someone else.
But the real problem is that he bet on Moscow, not on his own country, not on a united Europe and certainly not on common sense. From the beginning, it was a losing bet.”
More details: Zelenskyy expressed hope that further diversification of energy supplies in Europe, cooperation with the European Commission and potentially increased US gas supplies under a new administration would help resolve the challenges caused by the “shortsightedness of certain European figures”.
Background:
・Earlier this week, Robert Fico referred to Zelenskyy as a “beggar and blackmailer” and alluded to an old grievance involving former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a situation that, according to European Pravda, shaped Fico’s negative stance towards Ukraine over the years.
・Additionally, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini announced that he would not visit Kyiv officially, citing Ukraine’s decision to stop the transit of Russian gas.
・On 12 January, a group of pro-Russian Slovak parliamentarians traveled to Moscow for meetings with State Duma deputies and other Russian officials.
[Source: Ukrainska Pravda]
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/01/12/7493171/
(I posted this a few hours ago; still don’t see it. I’ll try posting just Zel’s quotes rather than the whole article…)
Zelenskyy responds to offensive remarks by Slovak Prime Minister Fico
“It’s good that Slovakia’s Prime Minister Fico has finally returned from his vacation at a luxurious hotel in Vietnam and is now in Bratislava. For him, personally, it must be challenging – switching from living in luxury to now trying to fix his own mistakes.”
“We offered our assistance to the people of Slovakia during their adaptation to the absence of Russian gas transit, but Fico arrogantly refused. Many in Europe warned him that doing nothing and waiting was not an option. Now, he’s resorting to PR, lies and loud accusations to shift the blame away from himself onto someone else.
But the real problem is that he bet on Moscow, not on his own country, not on a united Europe and certainly not on common sense. From the beginning, it was a losing bet.”
[Source: Ukrainska Pravda]
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/01/12/7493171/