Conciliation between Fico and Zelenski: “We are neighbors, we must maintain good relations”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski met on Monday in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, at the summit of the European Political Community (EPC), where they agreed to prepare a joint meeting of the governments of Kiev and Bratislava, aimed at strengthening bilateral relations and Slovakia's support for Ukraine's accession to the EU, EFE and Agerpres report.
“We have agreed to hold a joint meeting of governments at the end of June. This will take place in Bratislava or Kiev,” Fico said in a statement, adding that this format of talks would lead to “concrete results” such as the creation of transport links between the two countries. “We are neighbors; we have to maintain good relations,” remarked the Slovak prime minister.
For his part, President Zelenski wrote in a message on X that “Slovakia supports Ukraine in joining the EU and is ready to assist us on this path.”
Ahead of the meeting in Yerevan, Fico and Zelenski had a telephone conversation on Saturday, after which the Slovak prime minister confirmed his support for Ukraine's aspirations to join the European Union.
“The Three Musketeers Await the Fourth”
Robert Fico shared on social media on Monday a photo from Yerevan in which he appears alongside his Polish and Czech counterparts Donald Tusk and Andrej Babis, along with the message: “The three musketeers await the fourth and the rebirth of the V4 (Visegrad Group).”
The photo and message allude to the imminent inauguration of Peter Magyar as Prime Minister in Hungary and the possibility that tensions within the Visegrad Group may ease after the departure from power of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose rapprochement with Russia has caused rifts within the V4.
Three musketeers are waiting for the fourth and the revival of V4 💪🏼 🇸🇰🇨🇿🇵🇱🇭🇺
Photo by @AndrejBabis pic.twitter.com/P1MK7lol7C
— Robert Fico 🇸🇰 (@RobertFicoSVK) May 4, 2026
Relations between Ukraine, on the one hand, and Hungary and Slovakia, on the other, already cold, have been further strained since late January, when the transit of Russian oil through the Drujba pipeline was halted in Ukraine following a Russian drone attack. Zelenski then claimed that reparations take time, while Orban and Fico argued for their part that Ukraine was delaying reparations in an act of political blackmail against Budapest, as Orban refused to support it in the war with Russia and opposed Ukraine's future EU membership.
However, after Orban lost the election on April 12, Ukraine completed repairing the pipeline and Zelenskiy announced on April 21 that it would be back in operation.
