The new Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, has said that his government will not block the supply of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine from private manufacturers.
Thus, he softened his key election promise to stop military aid to Ukraine.
Source. This was reported by Pravda.sk.
Fico, who threatened before the September elections that "not a single shell" would come to Ukraine from Slovakia, said on Monday that the election promise concerned only supplies from the Slovak arsenal.
"If the company wants to produce and sell weapons abroad, we have nothing against it," he told reporters after visiting the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in the Slovak capital Bratislava.
Fico also promised to "do everything possible to help Ukraine in humanitarian terms," including demining.
"There are a huge number of mined areas and unexploded ordnance," Fico said. He added that Slovakia could provide medical assistance or help restore civilian buildings.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Slovakia transferred various military equipment to Kyiv, including decommissioned Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets and eight Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers, which are the flagships of the Slovak defense industry.