President Čaputová received Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday 11 May 2022, half a year after his official visit to Slovakia in connection with intensifying relations at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  

President Čaputová thanked President Duda and the people of Poland for their cooperation regarding this new security situation, as our northern neighbour will also help us with the protection of our air space. "I’m glad that we will soon be able to help each other in diversifying our natural gas supply thanks to the new gas connection between our countries. Slovakia and Poland are Ukraine’s good neighbours. We are helping those who have been chased out of their homes by war.” 

According to the president, we are in similar situation as Poland in terms of the per capita number of refugees who have come to our country. Both of our countries are also helping Ukraine militarily. For Slovakia, this is the largest volume of military assistance in our history and per capita we are again, along with Poland, among the countries providing the most help of this kind. "We can see the future of Ukraine in the European Union. These are not idle words; we also underwent a complicated development in the 1990s and we know about the importance of the promise that we would join the EU one day. Therefore, I proposed to the Polish president that we jointly communicate with the countries, which for now see the perspective of Ukraine’s membership in the EU differently.” 

The presidents agreed that Russia must stop the senseless war in Ukraine as soon as possible, and both countries have adopted tough sanctions on Russia. This is also related to the oil embargo.  Unfortunately, Slovakia failed to diversify its oil supplies for a long time and that is why we are in a more vulnerable and dependant position towards Russia. "We need to use every single day of the transition period which we negotiated to strengthen our energy independence, to find new suppliers, invest in the reduction of consumption of fossil fuels and increase the use of renewable resources of energy. We also agreed that Premier Orbán’s standpoint on this conflict and the sanctions is disappointing, because it contributes to the weakening of European unity. He is also acting against the original goal of V4, which is the reunification of Europe."