Fico: Western leaders are provoking a war between NATO and Russia

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has accused a number of Western politicians of deliberately seeking a military confrontation between NATO and Russia, warning that Europe is facing a “mortal danger.”

The remarks came in a video address published on social media on Saturday. According to Fico, the Western strategy of defeating Moscow through support for Ukraine has failed, and it is frustration with that outcome that is pushing some leaders toward a broader confrontation.

“The failure of the strategy to destroy Russia through the war in Ukraine has led some Western politicians to the conviction that if this goal cannot be achieved by the Ukrainian army and with comprehensive support for it, then everything possible must be done to provoke a conflict between NATO and Russia,” Fico said.

Saturday’s address followed remarks Fico made earlier in the week during a speech to students in Prešov. On Thursday, he said he would not allow Slovakia to be drawn into a war over NATO’s collective defense article: “I do not want Slovakia to participate in any military conflict because of some Article 5.”

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty obliges alliance members to treat an attack on one ally as an attack on all, but its wording gives each country latitude in choosing the form of its response. This is the argument Fico uses to insist that military participation is not automatic. On Saturday he repeated that Slovakia would not send soldiers to fight “under a fabricated pretext.”

Fico’s rhetoric stands in contrast to the positions of other alliance leaders. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told lawmakers on Thursday that Russia could strike NATO countries supporting Ukraine with drones or missiles and then declare them accidental — thereby testing whether the alliance would activate its collective defense mechanism. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Russia is intensifying hybrid attacks against Europe, citing an attempted drone strike on Leipzig airport in August that German authorities attributed to Moscow.

Following the defeat of Viktor Orbán in Hungary’s elections earlier this year, Fico is widely described as the most pro-Russian leader remaining in NATO. Since coming to power in late 2023, he has blocked state military aid to Ukraine, but has allowed private Slovak companies to continue supplying weapons to Kyiv. Slovakia’s next parliamentary elections are scheduled for September 2027. Fico said he expects his Smer party to win, though he acknowledges that forming a coalition government could prove a difficult task.