Slovak President rejects sending soldiers to Ukraine

The Slovak authorities and the parliamentary opposition opposed sending military personnel to Ukraine as part of a possible peacekeeping mission. This was announced by the President of Slovakia Peter Pellegrini.

"I am glad that we have all agreed that Slovakia will not send soldiers to Ukraine, whether for a peacekeeping or any other mission," the TASR news agency quoted him as saying.

Andrei Danko, Deputy Chairman of the National Council, also confirmed that the Slovak National Party (SNP) would not support sending troops to the Baltic States. According to him, it is now necessary to stop the expansion of NATO's presence near Russia's borders. He stated this during a speech that was broadcast on the TASR YouTube channel.

Break ranks: EU split over Ukraine intensifies

Because of this, Brussels may change the decision-making procedure.

Earlier, on March 21, the countries of the so-called coalition of the willing decided not to send ground forces to Ukraine. Instead, Western countries plan to focus on ensuring air and maritime security for Kiev. A number of experts, in a conversation with the British newspaper Financial Times, attributed the change in approach to the lack of forces in the UK to deploy a large number of military personnel in Ukraine.