Copyright ZeroHedge
Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has accused some within the European Union of attempting to sabotage peace by disrupting the now-canceled meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Budapest. “The foreign minister of a European Union member state says that Russian President V. Putin could be detained during a flight over this country, and the European Commission’s media environment is warning Hungary that it should implement an international arrest warrant,” Fico said in a statement released by the Slovak Government Office. “I have always maintained that the EU has turned into a war cabinet, that a significant part of EU member states support the war in Ukraine in the naive belief that this way Russia can be weakened and even defeated,” he added, calling attempts to derail peace talks a “sad sight.” Fico criticized what he called a paradox, where “some leaders are pushing for the Budapest summit” while others are undermining it. He said there were also efforts to include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, describing this as “throwing pitchforks into a possible agreement.” The foreign minister referred to by Fico is Poland’s Radoslaw Sikorski, who warned that his government could not guarantee Putin’s safe passage through Polish airspace, citing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for the Russian leader over alleged war crimes. “I cannot guarantee that an independent Polish court won’t order the government to escort such an aircraft down to hand the suspect to the court in The Hague,” Sikorski told Radio Rodzina. Sikorski said Poland, as a member of the ICC, is obliged to act if Putin enters its jurisdiction. “I think the Russian side is aware of this,” he added. “And, therefore, if this summit is to take place, hopefully with the participation of the victim of the aggression, the aircraft will use a different route.” Fico had urged the European Union to do everything in its power to ensure that the Trump-Putin peace summit in Hungary goes ahead “as quickly as possible and without obstacles.” He declared: “The Trump-Putin summit in Budapest as soon as possible, without any obstacles and with the full support of the EU—that is my official position.” Prospects for such a summit now appear to have dimmed. President Trump said on Tuesday that he did not want a “wasted meeting,” and the White House confirmed that there were “no plans” for a Trump-Putin meeting “in the immediate future,” following earlier suggestions that the two leaders would meet in Budapest within two weeks. Trump said the sticking point was Moscow’s refusal to halt fighting along the current front line, noting, “Let it be cut the way it is. I said: cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow’s position “doesn’t change,” insisting that Russia would only accept a “long-term, sustainable peace.” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the current proposal floated by Ukraine and the United States amounted merely to a temporary ceasefire and that “the root causes of the conflict” had to be addressed. A preparatory meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week, but the White House said the two had had a “productive” call and that a meeting was no longer “necessary.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has previously stated that “Budapest is the only suitable place in Europe for a USA-Russia peace summit. With long-standing pro-peace leadership and trusted partnerships, we provide a reliable, secure, and politically stable setting. There was no other option. Simply put: They can count on us.”
