Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have refused Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico overflight permission to travel to Russia for World War II commemorations in May.
“Fico will once again not receive permission to use Estonian airspace for a flight to Moscow to attend the 9 May parade,” Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna announced on Sunday, calling the commemorations “an event aimed at glorifying the aggressor.”
In a video posted to Facebook on Saturday, Fico said Latvia and Lithuania had refused him permission to use their airspace. No official confirmation from Riga or Vilnius was initially available.
Each year on May 9, Russia celebrates Victory Day, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
The Baltic states bordering Russia also closed their airspace last year to leaders travelling to Moscow for the commemorations last year, including Fico – who along with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was one of the only European guests.
Fico had already announced his intention to travel to the commemorative event in Moscow again this year. In a Facebook post two weeks ago, he said he planned to attend three international events, as well as the customary wreath-laying at the Slavin war memorial in Bratislava.
The first of these would be the concentration camp memorial in Dachau, for which he has not yet given a date. Moscow is to follow on May 9, then Normandy in June to commemorate D-Day, the Allied landing on the French coast in June 1944.
He wanted “to pay his respects to all those who fought against fascism, and to those who fell victim to it and had to endure incredible suffering,” Fico said in the video.
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The Slovak leader has repeatedly criticized Western states in the past for not participating in the commemorations in Moscow and called for a separation between current conflicts and joint remembrance.
No overflight for Moscow’s friends
Tsahkna said no country should be allowed to use Estonian airspace to strengthen relations with Russia as long as Moscow continues to flout international norms and persists with its aggression against Ukraine.
Estonia and the other two Baltic states are close partners of Ukraine, which has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion for more than four years.
During World War II, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were occupied alternately by the Soviet Union and Germany.
After the war ended, they remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991. Most Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians do not therefore view May 9 as a day of victory over Nazi Germany, but as the beginning of the renewed occupation of their homelands by the Soviet Union.