Italy Retrieves Its Air Defence System from Slovakia - It's 'Needed Elsewhere'

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has announced that the Italian air defence system will be withdrawn from Slovakia. He made the announcement in a video on social media, Aktuality reports.

"I have received a message from the Italian government that the Italian air defence system, which was leased to us for a year, will be withdrawn from Slovakia because it is needed elsewhere," Fico said, but he did not give any other details.

The Prime Minister of Slovakia also added that the country's strategic facilities, including nuclear power plants, are now unprotected. He also recalled that the previous government had "gifted" Ukraine with a serviceable Russian S-300 air defence system.

"Then we had American Patriot systems for some time, then they left, and now the Italians are coming," Fico said.

According to the newspaper, the Italian SAMP/T air defence system replaced the US Patriot last year. Slovakia provided Ukraine with the S-300 after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

As a reminder, on 24 January, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal met with Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico in Uzhhorod. The parties signed a joint statement that will strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. Shmyhal later said that Slovakia would supply Ukraine with engineering equipment for the construction of a three-tiered defence line. These include armoured excavators and demining machines.

After the meeting, Denis Shmyhal said that the Slovak government would not block Ukraine's purchases of weapons and equipment from Slovak businesses and would support the Ukraine Facility programme, which provides for the allocation of €50 billion from the EU to Ukraine.