The Russian drone that hit Ukraine's Security Service headquarters in Kyiv came down next to Slovakia's consular section in central Kyiv. Bratislava condemned the strike and ordered Russia's ambassador summoned, Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár said on 5 September, a day after the attack, according to the Slovak Foreign Ministry.
The response is a rare rebuke from a government that has been among the EU's friendliest to Moscow. The jet-powered Geran drone struck the SBU's central building on 4 September, injuring 12, in what Ukraine called a deliberate hit on the office of its Acting Security Service chief, Oleksandr Poklad, who was unharmed.
What Blanár said
"We strongly condemn today's Russian attack with a jet-powered drone on the building of the Ukrainian Security Service, which is located near the consular section of the Slovak Embassy in Kyiv," Blanár said.
The building has been operating on a limited basis for security reasons, he added, and no one was inside during the attack.
Blanár said Slovakia would not confine itself to a statement.
"I have ordered the Russian ambassador to the Slovak Republic to be summoned," he said, to seek an explanation from Moscow, and called on Russia to refrain from actions that could endanger civilians.
A condemnation with a hedge
He paired the rebuke with an appeal that treated the war as a two-sided problem, urging "both sides" to avoid further escalation and pointing to a "peaceful settlement." The strike, however, was carried out by Russia against Ukraine.
The symmetry fits Bratislava's stance under Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose government has been the most openly pro-Moscow in the EU and repeatedly at odds with Kyiv. Relations soured over Ukraine's decision to end Russian gas transit to Europe, and Fico has called President Zelenskyy an "enemy" of Slovakia. Meanwhile, Kyiv has accused him of acting as a "mouthpiece" for the Kremlin.
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