Slovakia's PM warns of potential Western betrayal of Ukraine, citing parallels to Munich Agreement
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has expressed concern that the West might ultimately decide to abandon Ukraine, drawing parallels to the 1938 Munich Agreement. In an interview with Brazil's Folha de S.Paulo, Fico stated that the West could tire of the ongoing war in Ukraine and agree to its division. "I fear the moment when the West says, 'It didn't work out, so let's sacrifice Ukraine. Remember the 1938 Munich Agreement, where Czechoslovakia was sacrificed. I am very afraid of that," he remarked.
Fico acknowledged that the war in Ukraine represents a violation of international law by Russia, but he asserted that there is no military solution to the conflict. "They need to sit down and negotiate. If we are a bit realistic, we must recognize that Russia will never leave Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk. This means Ukraine will lose part of its territory, although the international community will never recognize these territories as such, we all understand that they are under Russian control," he said.
After annexing Austria, Adolf Hitler set his sights on Czechoslovakia, home to about three million Germans in the Sudetenland. The 1938 agreement forced Czechoslovakia to cede territory to Nazi Germany. The pact between Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, signed on September 29, 1938, mandated that Czechoslovakia had to relinquish the Sudetenland to Germany within 10 days. By October 1, German troops had crossed the Czechoslovakian border and occupied the territory by the 10th.