Will you, here and now, with me, say, we in slovakia will not bow to russia s demand that we pay in roubles ? the initiative that we will pay in euros was the initiative driven by slovakia. we are the ones that, friday, where we sat and recalled all the countries, and we said, please, we need to stay united. 0ur payment goes until the 20th of may. that s when the next payment needs to be. and that s why we have still time and we need to develop the solution. thanks to the ukraine war, slovakia is a small country under enormous pressure, and the prime minister knows that pressure could yet intensify and last for years. stephen sackur, bbc news, bratislava. and you can see that hardtalk interview in full here on bbc news. check your local listings for details. get in touch with me any time on
Situation in ukraine. among the country s biggest supporters in the war against russia are its european neighbours particularly slovakia. it s prime minister eduard heger told hardtalk s stephen sackur in an exclusive interview in bratislava that europe must do whatever it can to ensure that vladimir putin is defeated. this is the office of eduard heger, prime minister of slovakia. his country is on the front line of the war in ukraine. slovakia has taken in tens of thousands of ukrainian refugees and mr heger is an arch advocate of ramping up weapons supplies to kyiv.