Russian President Vladimir Putin has hosted Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's desire to do business with Russia is a security issue for both Slovakia and the whole of Europe. Source: Zelenskyy on X (Twitter),

Prime Minister Robert Fico went to Moscow for a "working meeting" with President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, in which he said they discussed gas transit and the prospects of a "peaceful end" to war in Ukraine.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Sunday. The premier's trip came a little more than a week before the expiry of a transit contract between Moscow and Ukraine that allows about 15 billion cubic meters of Russian pipeline gas per year to be shipped to a number of European nations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in the Kremlin on Sunday with Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico (shown here in Brussels in February 2024), in a rare visit to Moscow by an EU leader since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his evening address on Monday, 23 December, has once again criticised Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who on 22 December held talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin regarding gas supplies.

A protest took place in front of the Slovak government building in Bratislava on Monday in response to Prime Minister Robert Fico's trip to Moscow, where he met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Source: Slovak publication Aktuality,