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Six months into Russias invasion of Ukraine, Slovak leaders joined their counterparts around the world on August 24, which is Ukrainian Independence Day, to reassert their full support for the eastern neighbour. Russias invasion took place 54 years after Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia on the evening of August 20, 1968. The occupation lasted for more than two decades. With Russias attack on Ukraine, we are reminded again that the fight for freedom and democracy never ends, Slovak President Zuzana aputov tweeted on August 21.

A day before Ukrainian Independence Day, the Slovak Defence Ministry struck a deal with Germany that will also help Ukraine. While Slovakia will receive 15 German tanks, Ukraine will obtain 30 older infantry fighting vehicles from Slovakia by the end of this year. Since the start of the invasion, on February 24, Slovakia has spent 154 million on military support for Ukraine, the Defence Ministry announced. We will stand by Ukraine until dictator Putin and his army leave Ukraines territory, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said in a Facebook video.

At home, the preacher-like prime minister was still unable to resolve the coalition crisis. Over the past week, Heger suggested several technocratic solutions that he believes might help enhance relations within his four-party coalition government. However, he refuses to remove Igor Matovic, the finance minister and his partys boss, from the cabinet the number-one condition laid down by Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), one of the four coalition parties.

SaS chair Richard Sulk, who serves as economy minister, has already announced he is going to resign next Wednesday, as he cant see any way out of the current impasse. Three other SaS ministers, who look after justice, foreign affairs and education, will leave the government as well. SaS voters are, nevertheless, split on whether the party should leave the government, a poll showed this week. Ahead of the new school year, which will see thousands of Ukrainian children attend Slovak schools, and at a time of rising energy bills, ongoing high-profile corruption investigations and the war across the border, a minority government scenario is not what Heger had been hoping for.

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Democracy Digest: Signs, Trains and Espionage in Czechia - Balkan Insight