West wants escalation with Moscow – EU leader

The decision to allow Kiev to strike deep into Russia will lead to further tensions, Robert Fico has said

The recent decision by Washington and its allies in Europe to allow Kiev to use Western-supplied weapons for long-range strikes deep into Russian territory shows that Ukraine’s backers “do not want peace,” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Saturday.

His was referring to a recent series of statements from the US, UK, Germany, and other Western nations, in which their leaders said that Kiev can now use weapons supplied by them in strikes targeting internationally recognized Russian territory.

Earlier this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the move a way to ensure peace, claiming that Russia’s potential success on the battlefield is the biggest threat to peace on the continent.

The Kremlin responded to the Western statements by accusing NATO of provoking a new “round of tensions.” In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that using long-range weapons against Russia would have “serious consequences” for the West.

These types of actions by the US and its allies are bound to lead to a further escalation of tensions between Moscow and the West, Fico warned, adding that he does not want his nation to take part in such “military adventures.”

“The Western [nations] do not want peace, but an escalation of tensions with the Russian Federation, which will surely happen,” the Slovak prime minister said in a Facebook post.

Fico called on his fellow countrymen to vote in the European Parliament election and back candidates that “support peace initiatives and not the continuation of war.”

The remarks come just days after another statement in which he said the EU and NATO have “sanctified the concept of the single correct opinion – namely that the war in Ukraine must continue at any cost in order to weaken the Russian Federation.” Anyone who does not agree is automatically branded a “Russian agent,” he added.

On Saturday, another European leader – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – warned that the West is “within centimeters of a direct conflict” with Russia, adding that both the EU and US desperately need pro-peace forces to come to power in order to avoid further escalation. He went on to claim that the West could reach a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict “within 24 hours” if only it has the will to do so.