Fico did not travel to the summit in Ukraine. The Ukrainian side reported illness, but the Government Office gave no reason

Prime Minister Robert Fico did not travel on Friday to the first Carpathian Eight summit in the western Ukrainian resort of Bukovel, where he was to meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky. The Government Office confirmed to TASR that Fico did not travel and that Slovakia is being represented by Marek Eštok, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Illness as the reason was cited only by the office of the Ukrainian president via the portal The Kyiv Independent. The Slovak government had not commented on the reason as of Friday afternoon. TASR ↗ SITA ↗

Who reported what, and what got corrected

The first report came from the Ukrainian portal The Kyiv Independent. Citing the office of the Ukrainian president, it wrote that Fico had cancelled the trip due to illness and would send Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok in his place. As of Friday afternoon, the updated version of the article still named the interior minister. The Kyiv Independent ↗

The report was picked up by TASR and, after it, by most Slovak and Czech newsrooms, many with the interior minister in the headline. The Government Office, however, later told TASR that Fico is being represented by Marek Eštok, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not the interior minister. SME ↗ iROZHLAS ↗

According to SITA, the Government Office confirmed that Fico did not travel and specified who is representing him. No reason for the cancellation was given on its part, nor was any diagnosis or statement from the prime minister himself. Slovak headlines about the illness thus rely on a Ukrainian source. SITA ↗

Who came to Bukovel

The Carpathian Eight summit is taking place in Bukovel from September 18 to 20 and is meant to bring together Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Austria, Romania and Serbia. The organizers present it as a platform for security, energy, investment and cross-border cooperation. TA3 ↗

President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the leaders and representatives of the participating countries on Friday. According to the Kyiv Independent, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Romanian President Nicușor Dan attended. The Czech Republic was represented by First Deputy Speaker of the Senate Jiří Drahoš. STVR ↗ The Kyiv Independent ↗

What Fico was supposed to discuss with Tusk

On Thursday, Tusk said that in Ukraine he would address Slovak and French objections to the EU's sanctions against Russian individuals. Ambassadors failed to agree on extending them, and the EU extended their validity by only one week, until September 22. The in-person meeting at which this was to be resolved thus did not take place, four days before the deadline. HN ↗

Slovakia is seeking to have two names removed from the list. According to SME, citing Politico, one is billionaire Alisher Usmanov, whose removal France is also seeking. The other, according to Lithuania's LRT, is oligarch Mikhail Fridman. SME ↗ LRT ↗

Read also: Fico is heading to meet Tusk in Ukraine with two open sanctions disputes. The EU's deadline expires on September 22

The day after the Article 5 remark

On Thursday in Prešov, Fico said he would do everything to prevent Slovakia from being drawn into a military conflict "because of some Article 5" of the North Atlantic Treaty. He added that Slovakia is part of NATO, that he values this, and that cooperation and fulfilling obligations matter to him. Aktuality.sk ↗ The Kyiv Independent ↗

Politico Europe wrote that the remark raises new questions about the prime minister's commitment to the alliance. On Friday, Aktuality.sk contrasted the cancelled trip with the fact that at home Fico warns against war with Russia. Politico Europe ↗ Aktuality.sk ↗

Limits of this account

The public knows the reason for the cancellation from only one source — the office of the Ukrainian president, relayed by the media — and that same source got the name of the prime minister's substitute wrong. The Government Office neither confirmed nor denied the illness. Fico's health, meanwhile, has repeatedly been a matter of public discussion since the assassination attempt in May 2024.

None of the cited sources link the cancellation of the trip to Thursday's remark about Article 5 or to the sanctions dispute. Temporal coincidence alone proves nothing.

*Illustration photo: the Bukovel ski resort in the Ukrainian Carpathians, January 2014. Author: Mr.Rosewater, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.*

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