An aerial view of Chasiv Yar shows the frontline city in ruins after heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces for over a year, Donetsk Region, Ukraine, November 11, 2024. (source: Stringer, TASR/AP/AP)
A day before Ukraine marks 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, launched a blistering attack on Joe Biden’s decision to authorise Ukraine’s use of US long-range missiles by Ukraine against targets in Russia, calling it a move that could escalate an already volatile conflict.
“It is a decision that destroys any hope of initiating peace talks and ending the mutual slaughter of Slavs in Ukraine,” Fico said in a video posted on social media November 18.
Ukraine used the missiles overnight between November 18 and 19 to strike military facilities 110km from the Ukrainian border, the USA confirmed. While Ukraine aims to destroy Russia’s military facilities, Russia continues to kill civilians in Ukraine. A case in point: on Monday night, six people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed in a Russian drone attack on the town of Hlukhiv in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, reports Reuters.
Fico added that he had instructed Slovakia’s foreign and defence ministers, Juraj Blanár and Robert Kaliňák, to oppose what he called a “militant step” at European forums. After an EU foreign affairs and defence council meeting in Brussels, held on November 19, Kaliňák warned that Biden’s decision could draw EU or NATO member states into the conflict.
“If negotiations had started in late 2022, when Ukraine retook Kherson and Kharkiv, there wouldn’t have been a thousand days of war,” Kaliňák told the Slovak press agency TASR, adding that Russia now holds stronger cards than the West.
