Fico refuses to defend NATO allies under Article 5 if Russia attacks

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told an audience of students and hospital staff in Prešov that he has no intention of fulfilling NATO's Article 5 obligations, which commit the alliance to a collective response if a member state is attacked.

Throughout the speech, Fico did not once mention Russia as an aggressor or as a source of military threat to Europe. Instead, he accused European leaders of "warmongering rhetoric" and claimed he did not understand whom NATO was actually supposed to defend against.

Questioning Article 5

Fico argued that there is sometimes a tendency to mask an inability to solve real problems — such as illegal migration, competitiveness and high energy prices — by resorting to talk of fighting, without specifying against whom.

He went on to openly state his reluctance to apply Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which guarantees a collective military response to an attack on a member. He questioned whether anyone could imagine Slovakia being told to prepare five or ten thousand soldiers to be sent to fight somewhere without knowing against whom, why, or for what. He said he did not want Slovakia dragged into a military conflict "because of some Article 5" and pledged that, as prime minister, he would do everything to ensure Slovakia is never pulled into one.

A pattern of hostility toward Ukraine

Since returning to the premiership in autumn 2023, Fico has cut off military aid to Ukraine and has regularly made statements hostile to Kyiv while justifying Russia's invasion. Throughout 2024 and 2025 he consistently opposed Ukraine's NATO membership and threatened to veto the process, arguing it would lead directly to a third world war. In June 2026, ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, he also came out against further large-scale financial and military support for Ukraine.