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(Reuters) – Ukraine on Monday expressed disappointment at allegations by Slovakia’s pro-Russian prime minister that Kyiv ought to act to take away from its navy ranks what he described as fascist components inside the Ukrainian navy.
Fico’s enchantment mirrored Russian arguments in its battle towards Ukraine, together with the Kremlin’s competition that its 2022 invasion sought to “denazify” its smaller neighbour.
KEY QUOTES
Ukrainian International Ministry:
“In Kyiv, there’s disappointment relating to the assertion made by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in the direction of Ukrainian troopers, which matches towards the present degree of belief and cooperation between Ukraine and Slovakia.”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico:
“All of us speak about fascism, Nazism, and but we tacitly tolerate the truth that there are models working round Ukraine which have a really clear designation, that are linked to actions that we now contemplate harmful and forbidden.”
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Russia routinely refers to Ukraine’s leaders as Nazis. President Vladimir Putin cited the necessity to rid the nation of Nazis from the very first day of the invasion in February 2022.
Fico’s adherence to the Kremlin line as a NATO chief complicates Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s virtually every day pleas for the Alliance to offer long-range weaponry and permission to apply it to Russian territory.
For the reason that outbreak of battle, Ukraine has pressed a drive to affix the European Union and NATO however Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have bucked a consensus on these efforts.
CONTEXT:
Russia has criticised Ukraine’s Azov batallion for its ultra-nationalist roots relationship again to its formation to fight Russian-financed separatists in 2014.
The unit has since been reformed and integrated into the navy, and is revered all through Ukraine for its resistance, notably within the almost three-month siege of the port of Mariupol.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski, Oleksandr Kozhukhar and Jan Lopatka in Prague; Modifying by Stephen Coates)
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