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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) \u2014 Slovakia\u2019s president has refused a plan by her country\u2019s caretaker government to send further military aid to Ukraine<\/a>, saying it doesn’t have the authority and parties that oppose such support are in talks to form a government following last week\u2019s election.<\/p>\n The presidential office said in a statement Thursday that the current government of technocrats has only limited powers because it lost a mandatory confidence vote<\/a> in Parliament on June 15, a month after President Zuzana Caputova swore it in.<\/p>\n The technocrat Cabinet was created with the aim of leading the country to Saturday\u2019s early election.<\/p>\n Caputova on Monday asked the leader of the winning party in the election<\/a> to try to form a coalition government. Populist former prime minister Robert Fico and his leftist Smer, or Direction, party captured 22.9% of the vote on Saturday<\/a>. It will have 42 seats in the 150-seat Parliament.<\/p>\n Fico has vowed to withdraw Slovakia\u2019s military support for Ukraine, and his victory could further strain the fragile unity in the European Union and NATO.<\/p>\n Fico needs to find coalition partners to rule with a parliamentary majority and has been negotiating with two other parties. He has been given two weeks.<\/p>\n The presidential office said that Caputova, who has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine and visited Kyiv twice since the start of the Russian invasion, has not changed her view on the necessity of military assistance for Ukraine.<\/p>\n But the statement said that \u201capproving a military aid package by the current outgoing government would create a risky precedent for the change of power after any future elections.\u201d<\/p>\n It said the president is ready to support military assistance proposed by any government with full powers.<\/p>\n Slovakia has been a major supporter of Ukraine, donating arms, including its fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets.<\/p>\n The caretaker government had been planning to send ammunition to Ukraine\u2019s armed forces and to train Ukrainian soldiers in demining.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n