The police in Slovakia detained a Ukrainian citizen on Jan. 30 suspected of preparing a coup in the country, Slovak media Aktuality reported.
The Ukrainian is being held in the border police office ahead of his deportation to Ukraine, according to Jana Mashkarova, the head of the Slovak police. She did not specify when the Ukrainian could be deported.
The news comes as relations between Kyiv and Bratislava have become increasingly tense this month. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who maintains friendly ties with Russia, recently called President Volodymyr Zelensky an "enemy" of Slovakia, while Ukraine's Foreign Ministry called Fico "the Kremlin's mouthpiece" in response.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry told Babel media outlet that the Ukrainian, born in 1966, is accused of "threatening the national security" of Slovakia.
The embassy has established contact with the detainee and his family, the ministry said.
Slovak opposition lawmaker Juraj Krupa suggested that the case may be trumped-up. If the detainee's intentions to organize a coup in Slovakia were true, he would not have acted alone and in a "top secret manner," the lawmaker said, as quoted by Slovak media.
Richard Gluck, chairman of Slovakia's Internal Security Committee who is a member of Fico's party, said that more information is expected from the country's Interior Ministry on the suspect's potential accomplices.
Earlier on Jan. 30, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry summoned Slovak Ambassador Pavel Vizdal on Jan. 30 to express its rejection of Bratislava's claims that Kyiv is interfering in Slovakia's internal affairs.
A day before, the Slovak Foreign Ministry summoned Ukrainian Ambassador to Bratislava Myroslav Kastran after Kyiv criticized Fico for wanting to continue Russian gas supplies to Slovakia.
Days before, Fico claimed that Ukraine was connected to a cyberattack on Slovakia's national insurance company, which Kyiv rejected.
Fico, a pro-Russian politician who has long opposed military aid to Ukraine, has escalated threats against Kyiv following the termination of Russian gas transit via Ukrainian territory on Jan. 1.
He has threatened to limit aid to Ukrainians and cut off electricity supplies amid an energy crisis brought on by Russia's relentless attacks against Ukraine's power grid.
Olena Goncharova
(Updated: )
