Robert Fico
Прем'єр-міністр Словаччини
Robert Fico – a Slovak politician. His party Smer-SD won the parliamentary elections in Slovakia in September 2023. On October 25, 2023, he became prime minister.
Before that, he had already served as prime minister in 2006-2010 and 2012-2018. Incidentally, in 2018 he resigned over the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend. It is known that the investigative journalist was working on a report about Slovak links to the Italian organized crime syndicate "'Ndrangheta". He also wrote about organized tax fraud involving businessmen close to Robert Fico's party.
Assassination attempt on Fico
On May 15, 2024, Robert Fico was shot when he went out to people after the end of a working meeting in the town of Handlová. The politician was immediately taken to a hospital in Bratislava.
The shooter was detained. He turned out to be 71-year-old writer Juraj Cintula. He later explained to law enforcement that he did not want to kill Fico, but only to "harm his health", since he disagreed with the prime minister's policies and sought to resume the transfer of military aid to Ukraine from Slovakia, and was convinced that the current government was a "Judas towards the European Union".
Europe, the US and the political leadership of other countries condemned the assassination attempt on Fico. In January 2025, Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with Fico by phone and reminded him of the assassination attempt, asking why the politician had not forgiven the attacker. In this way, the President of Ukraine wanted to show that killers cannot be forgiven.
What Fico says about Ukraine
Robert Fico said it is unrealistic to expect Russia to leave the occupied territories – Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk. He also stated that his government would never support Ukraine's NATO membership, since it would supposedly only lead to a third world war.
Moreover, he publicly stated that he would never propose sending troops to Ukraine to turn weapons against Russia.
When the Slovak opposition visited Kyiv in January 2025, he claimed that they had gone to "kiss Zelenskyy's ring". He even called Zelenskyy an "enemy". In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said that Fico and some parliamentarians had been poisoned by Russian propaganda.
In office, Fico has become notorious for pro-Russian and controversial statements and actions. In particular, on May 9, 2025, he attended the parade in Moscow.