Does the Slovak government plan to send soldiers to fight on the side of Ukraine against the attacking Russian army, as the former Vice-Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (the Slovak parliament), Anna Belousovova claims? No, that's not true: Rastislav Kacer, former Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs, who resigned on May 5th, 2023, has debunked these claims in a post on his official Facebook page, on February 7th, 2023, by saying that he rejects the "absurd" statements that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is planning to send troops to Ukraine. Slovak Minister of Defense, Jaroslav Nad, has also confirmed for the Slovak online newspaper Aktuality, that neither the Slovak government nor NATO is sending troops to Ukraine.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok where it was published by @tinamartina316.a on May 7, 2023, under the title "Slovak government and president have adopted the war in Ukraine". Ms. Belousovova said in the TikTok that:
"We already are in this war. If people can't understand that when they vote, they also choose between peaceful life or warmongers, they will find themselves crying. Because then it won't be about Matovic (former Slovak prime minister) being dumb and the other guy even dumber, it will be about their own children, who could be forced to fight as mercenaries on the eastern front, because Ukrainians are running out of live meat."
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue May 9 12:48:21 2023 UTC)
The short video shared on TikTok is a clip produced out of an interview with Ms. Belousovova for a Youtube channel eReport, also shared on Facebook. The false claim has its possible origin in a Facebook video of former Slovak prime minister Robert Fico, who said that in the next stage of the war, NATO soldiers are to be sent to fight in Ukraine, implying that also includes "young Slovak men."
