Slovak PM criticizes EU's warning against travelling to Moscow

ZAGREB - Visiting Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who held talks with his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic on Wednesday, criticized the warning of Kaja Kallas, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security Policy, against travelling to Moscow.

"How can she tell the prime minister of a modern state that she is warning him not to travel somewhere? How dare she say that? We are a sovereign country," Fico told the media after his talks with Plenkovic, adding that he does not understand why there is a "fuss" over his desire to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, a war memorial dedicated to the Soviet soldiers killed during World War II.

"If something similar happens in Lviv or Kyiv, our representative will lay a wreath there as well. I have been in politics too long for someone to tell me what I can or cannot do," Fico said.

Fico said he knew who liberated Slovaks during the World War II.

"We know who liberated us, no one can tell me that liberation came from the West, if I know that it came from the East," Fico said, stressing that "the peoples of the former USSR had the greatest share in the victory over Nazism" during the World War II and "this is the historical truth".

Kallas warned European leaders on Monday against participating in Moscow's military celebrations on May 9, inviting them to show solidarity with Ukraine instead. However, Fico has said he will go to Moscow despite Kallas' warning.