Premier: US Peace Plan for Ukraine Has Support of Slovak Government

Bratislava, 21 November (TASR) - The Slovak government supports the US peace plan for the war in Ukraine, but Ukraine must agree to it, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) told a press conference on Friday, adding that he'd like to see the European Union take a more active role in this regard. "The first basic condition for implementing this enormous plan is Ukraine's consent. Secondly, I'd like to see the European Union in a more active role because the plan includes, among other things, €100 billion that the Union should use for reconstructing and rebuilding Ukraine. But apart from that, we see nothing that would involve the European Union in the talks," he said, criticising the European Union's foreign policy. The prime minister claimed that everything that Smer-SD has predicted since the beginning of the war has "come true", including Ukraine's non-participation in NATO and the surrender of territory. He also stated that the current peace plan is worse for Ukraine than the one as of 2022. If the current plan is signed, Russia will emerge from the war as the victor and morally and economically strengthened, he opined. Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) told a press conference that the war in Ukraine began with the "overthrow of the democratically elected president" in 2014. "This was followed by Russia's response, which, according to its statement, was essentially to protect the interests of its minorities in Ukraine, and this led to the conflict," he claimed. Russia often defends its invasion of Ukraine by citing protection of its minorities. The published American proposal assumes that Ukraine will cede the entire Donbas region to Russia and commit itself to limiting the Ukrainian army to a maximum of 600,000 troops. The Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk will be recognised as de facto Russian territory. Ukraine will renounce its ambition to join NATO by constitutional decree and remain a non-nuclear weapons state. However, it could apply for EU membership. European fighter jets would be deployed in Poland to protect Ukraine, but no NATO troops would be stationed on Ukrainian territory. According to media reports, the content of the plan is based primarily on Russian stances, which means that Kiev, which is currently reviewing it, is likely to reject it. am/df