Slovakian prime minister reverses course, vows not to block $54 billion euro E.U. aid package for Ukraine

The Slovakian government will support the E.U.’s Ukraine Facility initiative, which will allow the bloc to provide 50 billion euros ($54 billion) of aid to Ukraine over four years, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced after a meeting with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on Wednesday.

Slovakia also reportedly vowed not to block Ukraine from purchasing weapons and equipment from Slovak companies. According to Shmyhal, Fico gave his assurance that Ukraine has Slovakia’s “full support for its European integration aspirations.”

Fico previously expressed support for the stance taken by Hungary, which has opposed the Ukraine Facility proposal. At a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán earlier this month, Fico said that in three years, European leaders will be “standing here again, noting that 50 billion euros have disappeared, and that on both sides of the conflict, 100,000 more soldiers have died.” He added that the conflict “doesn’t have a military solution.”

The meeting between Shmyhal and Fico took place in the city of Uzhhorod in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region. The previous day, when asked why he wasn’t going to meet Shmyhal in Kyiv, Fico said that there’s no war going on in the Ukrainian capital. “You really think there’s a war in Kyiv? I hope you’re not serious. Life there is absolutely normal,” the Slovakian leader responded. That same day, 18 Kyiv residents were reportedly killed by a Russian missile attack on the city.