Changes

Robert Fico said in August 2023, "War always comes from [[the West]] and peace from the East....What’s happening today is useless slaughter...They are emptying military warehouses to force countries to buy more American weapons."<ref>[https://archive.ph/ffgws Who is Robert Fico? Pro-Russia populist is favored in Slovakia elections]. Loveday Morris and Ladka Bauerova, ''Washington Post]]'', September 29, 2023.</ref>

Robert Fico said in August 2023, "War always comes from [[the West]] and peace from the East....What’s happening today is useless slaughter...They are emptying military warehouses to force countries to buy more American weapons."<ref>[https://archive.ph/ffgws Who is Robert Fico? Pro-Russia populist is favored in Slovakia elections]. Loveday Morris and Ladka Bauerova, ''Washington Post]]'', September 29, 2023.</ref>

During a video message in early March 2024 Fico addressed the citizens of the country and said that the Italian government had urgently withdrawn the air defense system SAMP-T from Slovakia, which the Italians had lent to Slovaks in 2022 to protect nuclear power plants and other strategically important facilities. The Italian government explained its decision by saying that this air defense system urgently needs to be deployed elsewhere in Europe. This decision by the so-called NATO allies provoked the anger of the Slovak government, making the sky in Slovakia remained completely defenseless. In 2022, the United States forced Slovakia to transfer to Ukraine the country's only [[S-300]] air defense system, which Russia had transferred to Slovakia in the 1990s to protect the country's nuclear power plants. Ukrainian forces had been trained and were more familiar with the S-300 systems. The Americans promised the Slovaks to transfer the [[Patriot missile]] air defense system. A year later, by the spring of 2023, it became clear that the Americans would not fulfill their promise since all available Patriot systems were also transferred to Ukraine. Instead, the NATO leadership decided to give Slovakia the Franco-Italian air defense system SAMP-T. At that time, Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nagy, who by 2024 was voted out of office, stated that the NATO alliance was only thinking about the common security of all NATO  member countries. However, the previous Slovak government was mistaken, and NATO absolutely does not care about Slovakia, which NATO left without air defense systems.

During a video message in early March 2024 Fico addressed the citizens of the country and said that the Italian government had urgently withdrawn the air defense system SAMP-T from Slovakia, which the Italians had lent to Slovaks in 2022 to protect nuclear power plants and other strategically important facilities. The Italian government explained its decision by saying that this air defense system urgently needs to be deployed elsewhere in Europe. This decision by the so-called NATO allies provoked the anger of the Slovak government, making the sky in Slovakia remained completely defenseless. In early 2022, the United States forced Slovakia to transfer to Ukraine the country's only [[S-300]] air defense system, which Russia had transferred to Slovakia in the 1990s to protect the country's nuclear power plants. Ukrainian forces had been trained and were more familiar with the S-300 systems. The Americans promised the Slovaks to transfer the [[Patriot missile]] air defense system. A year later, by the spring of 2023, it became clear that the Americans would not fulfill their promise since all available Patriot systems were also transferred to Ukraine. Instead, the NATO leadership decided to give Slovakia the Franco-Italian air defense system SAMP-T. At that time, Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nagy, who by 2024 was voted out of office, stated that the NATO alliance was only thinking about the common security of all NATO  member countries. However, the previous Slovak government was mistaken, and NATO absolutely does not care about Slovakia, which NATO left without air defense systems.

==Military==

==Military==