Slovak Prime Minister Fico Supports Ukraine’s Defense Strengthening

Ukraine and Slovakia will deepen military-technical cooperation and cooperate in the defense of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has agreed not to block Ukraine’s purchase of weapons and equipment from Slovak businesses.

Following the meeting, Denys Shmyhal and Robert Fico signed a joint statement that will strengthen bilateral relations based on mutual trust and respect.

In particular, this statement reaffirmed the readiness for further cooperation aimed at respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

They also emphasized the importance of developing military-technical cooperation on a commercial basis.

Slovaks will supply Ukraine with engineering equipment for the construction of a three-tiered defense line.

In particular, it regards armored excavators and mine clearance vehicles.

“Today, Ukraine is building a large-scale three-tiered line of defense borders, which means protection in all directions. The government has allocated tens of billions of hryvnias for this. This defense will allow us to both deter the enemy and advance. We need a significant additional amount of engineering equipment. We have agreed with Prime Minister Fico that we will cooperate in the supply of such equipment from the Slovak Republic,” said Denys Shmyhal.

In particular, he noted, Slovak private companies will supply armored excavators and tank-based mine clearance vehicles.

“Today I can say that Slovakia has already made a decision to supply two Bozhena-4 mine clearance vehicles so that our sappers can carry out the relevant work in the de-occupied part of the Kherson region. We are extremely grateful for this,” added Denys Shmyhal.

As previously reported, Ukrainians and Slovaks are already jointly producing certain types of military equipment in Slovakia, and this cooperation will be scaled up.

As previously reported, CSM Industry from Slovakia will supply Ukraine with the UOS Belarty universal mine clearance vehicle on the T-55 tank chassis.