Slovakia says it expects Poland to apologize for refusing to let the delegation board the plane

Slovak Deputy Speaker of the National Council Andrej Danko said on Tuesday, January 14, that he believes Poland will apologize for its refusal to allow the plane of the parliamentary delegation to fly through its territory towards Moscow.

"I don't understand how an EU member state allowed this to happen to a Slovak state plane, and I believe they will apologize to us," Danko said, his words quoted by the TA3 TV channel.

He pointed out that because of the ban, the flight bypassing Poland took an hour longer than a direct route would have. In addition, Danko is waiting for a comment on the situation from the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Europe.

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Earlier, on January 12, the deputy speaker of the Slovak parliament said that Poland banned the plane of the parliamentary delegation, which was planning to go to Russia on a visit, from flying through its airspace, and the ship had to choose a bypass route through the Czech Republic and Germany. Danko said he did not understand this approach by Warsaw. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, said that this refusal by Poland was beyond imagination.

A delegation from the Slovak parliament arrived in Moscow that day. Tibor Gašpar, deputy speaker of the Slovak parliament, said the next day that EU countries need to hear Russia and maintain contacts with it. During his visit, Danko met with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on January 13 and discussed trade and economic cooperation, and the next day held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The topics were the conflict in Ukraine and respect for history and cultural ties.

Before that, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo held talks in the Kremlin on December 22, 2024. The latter described his visit to Russia as a reaction to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 's (term of office expired on May 20, 2024) announcement to stop the transit of Russian gas to Europe. The Ukrainian conflict was one of the topics of the meeting.