Fiala: My Views on Ukraine Radically Different from Fico's (2)

Prague/Bratislava, February 26 (TASR-correspondent) - Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala's views on the war in Ukraine are "diametrically opposed" to those presented by his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Russian invasion, Fiala declared before his departure to a conference on Ukraine in Paris, TASR learnt from its special correspondent in Prague. "My views have been known for a long time. It's clear that they're diametrically opposed to those presented by Robert Fico," claimed Fiala. He pointed out that he had refrained from comments when the Slovak Prime Minister had decided to lay wreaths on the grave of Gustav Husak, yet Fico's latest statements on the war of Ukraine cannot go without a comment. "We all wish to have peace, but there's only one path towards peace and that's to stop the aggressor from fulfilling his goals. We can't back off when faced with injustice, aggressive war, evil and we must help the unjustly attacked. We must help them defend themselves. The road to peace has never led through a plan to lay down our weapons, hide and make concessions to the aggressor," said Fiala, adding that the Czech Republic and Slovakia have first-hand historical experience with inefficiency of appeasement when facing aggressive regimes. "Similarly, I can't accept narratives that blame Ukrainians or even western states for being the ones fueling the conflict," claimed Fiala, who added that Russia is unequivocally the aggressor in this war. "All it takes is to have one's eyes open to see who is the victim and who is the aggressor here and we must act accordingly," declared the Czech Prime Minister, who intends to convey this message also to Fico in person. Despite these disagreements, it's necessary to hold a dialogue with Fico. "It's better to talk together than not to talk. We're neighbouring countries, we must maintain a dialogue, even if we don't see eye-to-eye on some issues," stated Fiala. mf/mcs