Former Slovak populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose party is expected to win early parliamentary elections in Slovakia, plans to withdraw military and political support for Ukraine.

Fico, who governed Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and 2012 to 2018, is the leading contender for the prime minister’s post after the 30 September elections. He and his left-wing Smer party have campaigned using clearly pro-Russian and anti-American narratives.

"If Smer is part of the government, we won’t send any arms or ammunition to Ukraine anymore," Fico stated in an interview with Associated Press (AP).

He told AP that no quantities of Western weapons coming into Ukraine would change the war's course.

Fico said the European Union and the United States should use their influence to force Russia and Ukraine to conclude a compromise "peace deal".

"It’s naive to think that Russia would leave Crimea," Fico claimed, adding that "it’s naive to think that Russia would ever abandon the territory it controls".

Fico's speeches echo the Russian narrative about the causes of the war in Ukraine, including Putin's baseless claim that the current Ukrainian government is running a "Nazi state" where ethnic Russians supposedly need protection.

"I say it loud and clear and will do so: The war in Ukraine didn’t start yesterday or last year. It began in 2014. when the Ukrainian Nazis and fascists started to murder the Russian citizens in Donbas and Luhansk," Fico said to a cheering crowd of supporters in his hometown of Topolcany on 30 August.

Almost all opinion polls predict that Smer will take first place in the early parliamentary elections, with around 20% of the votes. Fico will then need the support of other parties to form a government.

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