MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. A senior Slovak lawmaker has not ruled out that his country will veto assistance to Ukraine.
"If [Vladimir] Zelensky continues harming our country’s national interests, Slovakia and, probably, Hungary will veto assistance to Ukraine," deputy speaker of the Slovak parliament, Tibor Gaspar, told TASS.
"We cannot tolerate Ukraine doing only what is beneficial to it," he explained, adding that Ukraine should treat Slovakia "as a trusted partner and assistance should be mutual."
"I think all these decisions are solely Zelensky’s," Gaspar noted.
The Slovak news portal Pravda reported earlier that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is leaning towards vetoing further EU financial assistance to Ukraine, a decision requiring unanimous support from all the EU countries. These plans stem from Zelensky’s refusal to resume transit of Russian gas via Ukraine.
Russian gas transit to Europe, including Slovakia, via Ukraine was fully halted on January 1 due to Kiev’s refusal to extend a relevant agreement. Later, Fico said that gas consultations between EU countries originally scheduled for January 7 had been disrupted due to the absence of the Ukrainian delegation. A Fico-Zelensky meeting has also not yet been organized. According to the Slovak prime minister, such a meeting could be held on January 21, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.