While a NATO summit is taking place this Thursday in Brussels and the organization will provide “additional support to Ukraine against nuclear and chemical threats”, the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile system is also in on its way to Slovakia, a country bordering Ukraine. Slovakia announced at the same time that it could supply Ukraine with its S-300 anti-missile system.
With our special correspondent in Košice, Alexis Bedu
AT Kosicein the border region of Ukraine, there is no debate for the inhabitants, we must help the attacked neighbor and do everything possible to defend ourselves against the Russians.
” I believe in being ready, there is no fear, explains this Slovak. You can be a pacifist if everyone is, but obviously Russia isn’t a pacifist, so if you stay a pacifist, you disappear. »
” An evil that must be stopped at all costs »
In Košice, we remember the August 1968 invasion with Russian tanks rolling into Prague in what was still Czechoslovakia.
” I saw pictures of Mariupol on TV and thought it might be our home, says Igor Petrovtchik, mayor of the largest district of Košice. There is a real danger and it is an evil that must be stopped at all costs. I think that if in 2014 our reaction to Putin’s aggression had been stronger, we might not be where we are today. The risk of World War III will exist as long as Putin is in power. You have to protect yourself. »
Once the American system is installed, the two Slovak S-300 anti-missile pieces should be sent to Ukraine. The government is preparing the population, explaining that at the moment these old systems are useless in Slovakia. Russians and Ukrainians being the only ones who can do their maintenance.
►To read: NATO will deploy four new battalions in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia