MOSCOW, May 3 (Reuters) – Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico is among only a handful of global leaders due to attend a scaled-back edition of Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow this month, Russian state TV said on Sunday.
Following Viktor Orban’s election loss in Hungary last month, Fico is now viewed as the European Union’s most pro-Russian leader.
Both Hungary and Slovakia have maintained Russian gas supplies despite EU efforts to end the bloc’s reliance on Russian energy.
Fico also broke ranks with the EU by visiting Moscow in 2024, two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin following last year’s parade in Red Square, drawing a rebuke from the Slovakian opposition and Brussels.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will also be in Moscow for the festivities on May 9.
The parade is a highlight of the Russian calendar, commemorating the victory of the Soviet Union – of which both Russia and Ukraine were part – over Nazi Germany in World War Two, a conflict in which it lost 27 million people.
Moscow will hold a slimmed-down version of the parade this year without the usual large display of weaponry, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, citing an increased threat of Ukrainian attacks.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Joe Bavier)
