Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys has criticised Robert Fico for attending the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow last week, calling the Slovak prime minister’s decision “completely incomprehensible”.
“It’s regrettable that the leader of a country that is part of both NATO and the European Union makes the decision to travel to the capital of a state that commits war crimes against Ukraine, conducts aggression against its neighbours, and goes there to celebrate something,” Lithuania’s top diplomat told an LRT TV programme on Monday.
“This is completely incomprehensible to me,” he added.
Fico was among over 20 foreign leaders who attended Russia’s annual Victory Day parade on May 9, the fourth since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The Slovak prime minister and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić were the only European leaders at the event. Fico defied warnings from Brussels not to go.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, had criticised Fico’s attendance at the Moscow ceremonies.
In a response to Kallas’ comments on Facebook, Fico said he was paying tribute to Soviet Red Army soldiers who had liberated Slovakia in the war. Kallas had no right to criticise him, Fico said, as it was normal to hold a dialogue with other leaders.
Budrys said that Fico’s trip to Moscow raises questions about whose interests he is supporting.
“This is a fracture in Slovakia’s position, as well as in the EU and NATO. It’s a very bad sign,” he said.
Lithuania and some other EU member states did not allow the Serbian and Slovak leaders to cross their airspace on their way to Moscow for the Victory Day celebration.
„Let us consider as a childish joke all the technical problems we confronted, created by our European Union colleagues,“ Fico commented.
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