Defence Ministry to Seek Review of Law Enforcement Handling of Ukraine Aid

Bratislava, 6 February (TASR) – The Defence Ministry will file a motion to review decisions by the law-enforcement authorities in cases related to the donation of military equipment to Ukraine, Defence Ministry State Secretary Igor Melicher announced at a press conference on Friday. He was joined at the press conference by Defence Minister Robert Kalinak, Parliamentary Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar and MP Richard Gluck (all Smer-SD). Gluck, who also chairs the House defence and security committee, said that he'll convene a special emergency session to which Bratislava Region Prosecutor Rastislav Remeta will be invited. He repeatedly linked the prosecutor to the opposition. The defence minister argued that other countries haven't sent their air-defence systems or aircraft from active service to Ukraine. Gaspar added that the argument that Slovakia suffered no damage doesn't hold. Even if the fighters were non-operational, they would still have had financial value and, in his view, the state should have tried to obtain this value by selling them. The politicians pointed out that in 2020 some MPs of the then-governing OLaNO party proposed regional prosecutor Remeta for the post of prosecutor-general. Remeta stated at a press conference on Thursday (5 February) that law-enforcement authorities have closed three out of four criminal investigations related to the aid given to Ukraine during the previous parliamentary term. By discontinuing criminal investigations or rejecting criminal complaints, they closed cases concerning the donation of MiG-29 fighter jets and the S-300 air-defence system and the termination of a contract with a Russian company providing maintenance for the fighter jets. The police are still investigating the handover of technical documentation to Ukraine's military attache. mf/df