Slovakia to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine, calls for peace talks – foreign minister

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said this at a joint press conference with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg in Vienna on Wednesday.

"The Slovak Republic views Russian aggression as a violation of international law, and we are ready to help Ukraine, because everyone wants peace, everyone wants democracy for Ukraine, and we all want Ukraine and its territory not to experience upheaval," Blanar said.

At the same time, he stated that currently the line of contact in Ukraine has become relatively static and "now you can see a solution in peace negotiations."

"A peaceful solution is always difficult. But we must say that we need a ceasefire before peace talks. Now we see that the conflict in Ukraine has been going on for more than 600 days and has not led to any results. I repeat once again that we support Ukraine. However, we see that the conflict has entered a frozen phase," Blanar said.

According to him, Slovakia will continue to provide assistance to Ukraine, but not military assistance. This, for example, concerns the demining of Ukrainian territories as well as "supporting Ukraine through membership of the European Union."

"But we have a slightly different opinion. We recognize that there is no military solution, and we need pressure for peace talks, and we support all peace talks. [...] I repeat once again that we favor peace talks, initiated by either Ukraine or China. The ceasefire is, of course, our position, the position of the Slovak Republic," he said.

He also stated that the Slovak government is ready to discuss the introduction of the 12th package of EU sanctions against Russia, but it "has clear conditions for supporting the sanctions," which "should not harm the interests of the Slovak Republic, especially its economy."

"That is why this 12th package of sanctions remains open to us. But we have our own conditions, which I also discussed in Brussels. And if the 12th package of sanctions includes, in particular, the nuclear issue, then Slovakia will not support it," Blanar said.

Earlier, Blanar said that Slovakia would not support the 12th package of EU sanctions against Russia if it included a ban on the import of Russian nuclear fuel, as Slovak nuclear power plants have not yet been converted to use other fuels.