Prime Minister Robert Fico’s surprise visit to Moscow on Sunday, reportedly to discuss natural gas and Ukraine, was a blow to European unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his evening address on Monday, 23 December, has once again criticised Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who on 22 December held talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin regarding gas supplies.

Robert Fico said he and the Russian leader discussed "the possibilities of an early, peaceful end of the war" in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president says European leaders observed that Robert Fico wants to help Russia push ‘American gas and energy resources of other partners away from Europe’ - Anadolu Ajansı

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Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has made a surprise visit to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin - becoming only the third Western leader to meet the Russian president since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

A protest took place in front of the Slovak government building in Bratislava on Monday in response to Prime Minister Robert Fico's trip to Moscow, where he met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Source: Slovak publication Aktuality,