Slovakia won’t block private arms exports to Ukraine, Fico says

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico softened a key election promise to halt military aid to Ukraine, saying his government won’t block supplies of weapons and ammunition from private manufacturers.  

Fico, who pledged before the September vote that “not a single round” will come from Slovakia to its eastern neighbor, said Monday that the campaign pledge related only to supplies from Slovak army stockpile. 

“If a company wants to produce and sell weapons abroad, we have nothing against it,” he told reporters after visiting the Defense Ministry headquarters in the capital Bratislava.

With an annual output of around 180,000 artillery shells, the NATO member state of 5.4 million people has became a key ammunition supplier to Ukraine, which has also obtained Slovak-made howitzers.