Slovak and EU flagsPRAGUE, Apr 10Slovakia is negotiating with Ukraine on the possible sale of self-propelled howitzers of Slovak production «Zuzana», the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic Yaroslav Nagy said on the air of Slovak TV. sale,” Nagy said, without specifying what type of Zuzan howitzers he was talking about. “We are also negotiating the possible repair of damaged Ukrainian combat vehicles and tanks T-72 and T-75 at our defense enterprises. repair them and return them back to Ukraine,” the minister added. Nagy raised the issue of the further operation of the old Soviet MiG-29 fighters in service with the Slovak Air Force. According to the minister, these planes will soon have to be «landed on the ground,» since Russian technicians will no longer monitor their condition. «The sooner we make a decision on the final 'landing of the MiGs', the better,» the head of the Slovak Defense Ministry stressed. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov previously noted that pumping Ukraine with weapons from the West does not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, will have negative effect. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and, as of March 25, they have completed the main tasks of the first stage — they have significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
