Such a statement was made by Minister of Defense Robert Kaliňák (Smer-SD) on August 2 during the discussion program «V politike» on the TA3 TV channel. According to him, after the war in Ukraine ends, there may be a large movement of illegal weapons, including large-caliber ones, and Slovakia must be ready for this.
“If peace is concluded, these weapons will move. Then it will be necessary to respond. Like Poland, we must prepare to protect the border not only with police forces but also militarily,” — explained the minister. This concerns the eastern border of Slovakia, which is also the external border of the Schengen Area.
Kaliňák added details: in his opinion, in the future the risk will no longer be individual people crossing the border with suitcases, but entire armed groups. Military units and the gendarmerie, he said, are already conducting joint training with the Police Corps — practicing how to act together during border protection.
In the same discussion, the vice-chairman of the opposition KDH (Christian Democratic Movement) William Karas said that the eastern direction needs to be strengthened now. He referred to information from police circles about signs of activity of organized groups that may be involved in human and arms trafficking, and called on the Minister of the Interior Matúš Šutaj Eštok to strengthen security structures in the east of the country. “The Slovak Republic cannot just point fingers at other states. We are responsible for our eastern border and for security in eastern Slovakia,” — Karas emphasized.
By the way, technical reinforcement of the eastern border has been ongoing for a long time. As early as October 2023, the Armed Forces of Slovakia received from Germany two MANTIS air defense systems — free of charge, with over 100 trained servicemen working on their maintenance. Germany also transferred five surveillance radars with a range of up to 100 km.
