TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said it is important that the EU does not lose focus on Ukraine as other pressures, including the Israel-Hamas war, dominate the international agenda.

Varadkar was speaking to reporters earlier today in Brussels ahead of the second day of the European Council Summit. 

He confirmed that Ukraine would be discussed at today’s meeting and said it would be very easy to lose focus on it.

“Because of all the other things that are happening in the world not least in the Middle East, it’d be very easy to lose focus on the war in Ukraine, and it is essential that we don’t do that.

“We need to continue – if not continue – double down on our support for Ukraine, in terms of political, military, financial and other support,” he said.

EU Unity?

His comments come following a controversial meeting last week between Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban and Russian president Vladimir Putin. 

Orban defended his meeting with Putin yesterday, arguing that he was right to meet him and characterising himself as the only EU leader actively seeking peace in Ukraine. 

“We keep open all the communication lines to the Russians. Otherwise, there would be no chance for peace,” Orban said. “This is a strategy. So we are proud of it.”

Orban’s position counters the official EU one of ostracising Putin since the start of the war with Ukraine in February 2022.

“We are the only one who is speaking on behalf and in favour of the peace which would be the interest of everybody in Europe,” Orban said yesterday. 

The Hungarian prime minister has found a new ally around the summit table since the election of Slovakia’s left-wing populist prime minister, Robert Fico.

Fico has also questioned the series of war-related sanctions imposed on Moscow.

He took this a step further yesterday when he pledged to stop Slovakia’s military aid to Ukraine, just one day after taking office. 

“To make it clear, I won’t vote for any sanctions against Russia unless we have analysis of their impact on Slovakia on the table,” Fico said, arguing that previous sanctions harmed his nation.

The Central European country of 5.4 million people was notably the first NATO nation to deliver fighter jets to its war-torn neighbour.

According to the German-based Kiel Institute, Slovakia had pledged €680m in total government support to Ukraine through July 2023.

That puts Slovakia among the countries with the largest government support to Ukraine by GDP (0.65 percent), behind Norway, the Baltic states, Denmark and Poland.

Russia has dismissed the impact Slovakia’s decision to halt military aid to Ukraine will have on the 20-month-old conflict.

“Slovakia did not have such a big share in the supply of weapons, so it will hardly affect the entire process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

With reporting from Christina Finn, Press Association and AFP.