A year on since the start of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Defence Minister Naď said: Delivering aid to Ukraine is an investment in our security too

Russia's aggression against Ukraine has fundamentally changed our perception of security. Slovakia has strongly condemned all the violations by Russia of international law and Ukraine's territorial integrity. It is, therefore, our duty to give our backing to Ukraine as the attacked side.

In his statement marking the one-year anniversary, Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: “No country has the right to occupy another countryʼs territory by force or blackmail. By refusing to help Ukraine, the probability of a far greater conflict would increase in the future. Anyone who thinks that Russiaʼs ambitions reach only as far as Ukraineʼs borders is wrong. Delivering aid to Ukraine is an investment in our security too.”

Even as early as 2014, Slovakia clearly sided with Ukraine and condemned the illegal annexation of Crimea. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Slovakia has backed Ukraine politically, economically, militarily, and with humanitarian assistance by donating some €168m in aid to Ukraine.

Slovak military aid to Ukraine has so far included the S-300 air defence system, BOŽENA mine-clearing unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), five transport helicopters, munitions and fuel. Another aid project has seen 30 tracked BVP-1 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) transferred to Ukraine in exchange for 15 Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks (MBTs) which are being delivered from Germany. In addition, Germany has pledged to provide Slovakia with two modern MANTIS C-RAM Air Defence Systems for free and permanently to boost Slovak air defences on its eastern border with Ukraine, secured by Slovak armed forces and assets.

As well as this, Slovakia provides a logistics hub for coordinating materiel and military aid for Ukraine from other allied countries, supporting the movements of millions of tonnes of arms supplies across Slovak territory to Ukraine.

Working hand-in-hand with the Slovak defence industry, Slovakia has supported Ukraine with ZUZANA 2 howitzers, BOŽENA mine-clearing unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and a military equipment battle damage repair (BDR) programme. To ramp up our defence industrial capacity, we are an active member of the Copenhagen Conference for Ukraine. Our partners have created this international fund to plus up Allied defence industrial bases.

While in Slovakia during 2022, approx. 400 Ukrainian citizens went through the SVK-led basic military training programme to prepare them for combat. Organised under the European Union Assistance Mission Ukraine (EUMAM UA), the training operation for Ukrainian forces by the Slovak Armed Forces has been underway in our country this year too.

For its willingness to help Ukraine, Slovakia has received €82m in partial reimbursements for its arms deliveries to Ukraine through the European Peace Facility (EPF), the EU's off-budget instrument, to be reinvested in our defence. In addition, the United States has committed US$205.8m in aid to Slovakia to replace its aging Soviet-era equipment.

Slovak-operated, Soviet-made assets and materiel have been transferred to Ukraine, because such equipment would have no future prospect of further use by our armed forces other than replacement. Yet, at no point and at no time have we weakened SVK Defence's responsiveness. On the contrary, our Allies are supplying us with more advanced systems. With access to EU and U.S. funding, we are buying new needed capabilities.

Over the past year, Slovakia has seen its political and defence engagement with Allies and other countries in the Euro-Atlantic area deepening. Most importantly, our Allies have strengthened our security through the NATO Multinational Battlegroup Slovakia (NATO MN BG SVK), which, side by side with the Slovak Armed Forces, is ready to defend our country. Bilaterally, the United States, Germany and the Czech Republic have been our key partners on security and defence.