Slovak Prime Minister calls Ukraine "one of the most corrupt countries"
No decision was reached at the EU Council summit which concluded on Friday regarding further support for Ukraine. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovak Robert Fico are the principal opponents of supporting the country currently at war with Russia. Fico questioned journalists, "Has financing Ukraine changed the outcome of the war?"
5:26 AM EDT, October 28, 2023
The European Commission has proposed that the 27 EU nations allocate 56 billion dollars for macroeconomic support of Ukraine until 2027.
Among those against this support was Robert Fico, who was sworn in as Prime Minister of Slovakia for the fourth time on Thursday.
"Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world," Fico declared, quoted by the Slovak news outlet SME.
"Has funding Ukraine changed the outcome of the war?" he questioned in a discussion with journalists covered by the outlet Dennik. "So should we pour in another 56 billion and it won't matter what happens?"
Still, he did not completely dismiss the idea of supporting Ukraine. He made this conditional on "guarantees that EU funds (including Slovak funds) will not be misused and that a portion of these resources will be allocated to repair Slovak infrastructure in border territories and assist Slovak companies in rebuilding Ukraine".
However, he added, "We are a great distance from reaching an agreement, which is intended to occur by the end of 2023."
On Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also stated on Hungarian state radio that he sees no rationale for Hungary to use its taxpayers' money to aid Ukraine.
