Slovak PM calls Zelenskyy "beggar" and "blackmailer"

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has harshly criticised Ukraine as an unreliable partner and said he is tired of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelling around Europe "begging" and "blackmailing others".

Source: Robert Fico in a speech at a parliamentary committee on Friday, a video of which he posted on his Facebook page, as reported by European Pravda. 

Details: The parliamentary committee meeting had been convened by the Slovak opposition, which demanded that Fico explain his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow and provide information about Slovakia's next steps regarding the termination of the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine.

Fico said that two solutions to the issue of gas transit from Ukraine to Slovakia had been prepared and claimed Ukraineʼs Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal had agreed to them. 

One of these was to have been an arrangement between Russia and Azerbaijan allowing Slovakia to receive Azerbaijani gas, but according to Fico, Zelenskyy thwarted the arrangement. 

The second option was a proposal for SPP, the Slovak state-owned energy supplier, to set up a subsidiary on the Russian-Ukrainian border so that gas could be transported to Slovakia via Ukraine.

Fico called Ukraine's president unreliable and said he sometimes gets "fed up with him". 

Quote from Fico: "He [Zelenskyy] goes around Europe just begging and blackmailing others, asking for money. It just has to stop." 

More details: The Slovak prime minister said Russia, on the other hand, has always been a reliable partner when it comes to energy supply.

Quote from Fico: "Russia has never deceived us, unlike Ukraine. I remember the situation in 2009 when I was in Ukraine and asked Ukrainian Prime Minister [Yulia] Tymoshenko to give us some gas from the reservoirs they have in the western part of Ukraine, and I was told to go to hell. These are typical Ukrainians."

Background: 

• Fico became anti-Ukrainian because of his resentment towards Tymoshenko.
• Slovak President Peter Pellegrini said that he refused to pay an official visit to Kyiv because Ukraine had stopped the transit of Russian gas.
• Fico has also made a range of threats against Kyiv, including threatening to veto EU decisions on Ukraine. 

Support UP or become our patron!