Defence Ministry to Seek Review of Law Enforcement Handling of Ukraine Aid (2)

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 prosecution service relies in its opinions on absurd to contradictory claims and is sending out a signal to society that if you are properly aligned with the government and ideologically inclined in the right way, you can do practically anything," said Melicher. The defence minister argued that other countries haven't sent their air-defence systems or aircraft from active service to Ukraine. "Last week the German defence minister stated that Germany won't provide its air defence to Ukraine because it's already handed over a third of its capacities," said Kalinak. He acknowledged that Poland is donating some of its MiG fighters to Ukraine, but sees a difference between donating them in 2026 and doing so after the start of the war. He added that the MiG-29s in Slovakia weren't meant to serve until 2050 but were to protect Slovak airspace until they were replaced this year by F-16 fighters. 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. According to him, Slovakia could have sold them to Ukraine, and if not to Ukraine, which may or may not have had sufficient financial resources at the time, Slovakia could have approached many other countries that still use MiG-29s or all the systems being discussed here. According to Gaspar, not all of the aircraft qualified as surplus property. Even if they did, the state mustn't manage unused property in this manner, he added. 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. Former defence minister (2020-23) Jaroslav Nad welcomed the information and said that he was proud of the former government to which he belonged. He underlined that by helping Ukraine, it had acted economically, legally and in a morally correct way. Prime Minister Robert Fico said in a video on social media that the prosecution service has entered the political battle on the side of the opposition. He reacted in a similar way to the prosecutor-general's statement on Tuesday (4 February) that the rate of prosecution of corruption has fallen significantly. NOTE: This story has been updated in paragraphs 4 and 5, and extended to include paragraphs 3, 6, 9 and 10 mf/df