Fico publishes photo with Putin, says calls Ukraine and EU are "losers"

He wrote this on Facebook, accompanying the post with a joint photo with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The Slovak prime minister noted that from the beginning, he had a different opinion on Russia's war against Ukraine than other European politicians. According to him, Russia's full-scale invasion was a violation of international law, but the Russian Federation allegedly had "serious security reasons" for it.

Fico added that he supported all peace plans, but in the spring of 2022, the West allegedly forbade Ukraine from signing an agreement with Russia.

"Because it naively believed that by continuation of the war he would weaken Russia politically and economically." the Slovak government leader asserted.

"Along with Ukraine, the EU is second in line in terms of losers" Fico added.

In his opinion, the EU supposedly lacks its own stance on fundamental foreign policy issues and blindly follows the administration of the 46th U.S. President Joe Biden regarding Russia's war against Ukraine.

"In the EU, we have no idea what is actually happening in relations between USA and Russia, which are absolutely decisive for ending the military conflict," Fico wrote.

He finds it strange that EU countries are requesting a seat at the negotiation table between Ukraine and Russia.

The Slovak prime minister also shared his own forecast on how the war in Ukraine will end.

"President Putin will remain with the territory in Ukraine, which is military controlled and the guarantee that Ukraine will never be a member of NATO. And what about Ukraine? It will lose a third of the territory, its mineral wealth, it will never be in NATO and there will be foreign armies on its territory," Fico wrote.

Trump’s conversations with Putin and Zelenskyy: What is known

On February 12, U.S. President Donald Trump held a phone conversation with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

According to Trump, Putin agreed that both of them want to "stop the millions of deaths occurring in the war between Russia and Ukraine."

Speaking to the media at the White House, Trump said that his meeting with Putin is most likely to take place in Saudi Arabia. However, he did not specify a possible date for the meeting.

On the same day, a phone conversation took place between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump. The President of Ukraine thanked him for his interest in what "we can do together," while the American leader informed his counterpart about the details of his conversation with Putin.

According to Trump, the conversation with Zelenskyy "went very well."

On February 13, following Trump’s conversation with Putin, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Poland, Italy, the UK, Spain, Ukraine, and the EU issued a joint statement after their meeting in Paris.

European diplomacy chief Kaja Kallas stated that any negotiations with Russia must include Europeans and Ukrainians.

Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared that European officials "make worthless statements" when commenting on the EU declaration, which emphasizes the necessity for Ukraine and Europe to be involved "in any negotiations."