Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has vowed to block any EU funding for Ukraine’s military, calling the bloc’s strategy “wrong and ineffective” and dismissing continued support as “nothing but senseless killing” in a letter to European Council President António Costa dated 10 December.
“I cannot, and will not under any pressure, endorse any solution to support Ukraine’s military expenditures in which the Slovak Republic would participate,”
Fico wrote, joining Hungary in explicit opposition to the EU’s €210 billion plan to unlock frozen Russian assets for Kyiv. Belgium has also resisted the plan, though on legal and financial grounds rather than opposition to military aid itself.
Fico invokes Trump to justify the veto
The Slovak premier explicitly cited US President Donald Trump’s peace efforts as grounds for blocking the reparations loan.
“The use of frozen Russian assets could directly jeopardize US peace efforts, which directly count on the use of these resources for the reconstruction of Ukraine,” Fico wrote—echoing an argument Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever made last month.
Fico spoke with Trump by phone after his November 2024 election victory and addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington in February 2025. In his letter to Costa, Fico framed his veto as alignment with Washington:
“I repeatedly express my strong support for all peace initiatives, in particular the efforts of President Donald Trump in recent weeks to end the unnecessary bloodshed.”
The letter also referenced “information we jointly share about corruption scandals in Ukraine.” Fico has drawn comparisons to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán for echoing Moscow’s messaging on the war.
No room for compromise
Unlike previous EU summits, where holdouts eventually compromised after marathon sessions, Fico pre-emptively shut that door.
“I take note of your statement from Angola that the European Council meeting may take a long time,” he wrote to Costa. “By formulating clear positions, I want to rule out any misunderstanding or misguided expectation that the length of the Council meeting in Brussels may change my position.”
The veto threat lands days before the 18-19 December summit—the bloc’s last chance this year to secure Ukraine’s funding.
Without new money, Kyiv’s budget reserves are expected to run dry by April. Germany’s Friedrich Merz flew to Brussels last week to pressure Belgian PM De Wever into dropping his objections over the €183 billion in frozen Russian assets held at the Euroclear clearinghouse.
A complicated relationship
Slovak-Ukrainian relations are not entirely hostile. Fico’s letter noted Slovakia supplies Ukraine with electricity and gas through reverse flow, hosts nearly 200,000 Ukrainian refugees, and is working on new energy interconnections and rail links.
He also declared Slovakia “clear supporters of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.”
But this is rhetoric—actions speak a different story. Fico became the first EU leader to visit Moscow last December, and his veto threats have since grown sharper. Whether Slovakia’s backing for EU membership would survive the conditions Bratislava might attach remains an open question.
