Bratislava, May 17 (IANS/DPA) Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico remains in intensive care two days after the assassination attempt on his life and it is unclear if he will make a full recovery.

Fico was hit by four shots and underwent five hours of surgery in the Banska Bystrica hospital on Wednesday, according to the latest information provided by Fico’s deputy Robert Kalinak and Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok.

The severity of the injuries could make recovery difficult and Fico will “have to relearn many things,” Kalinak said. Even if Fico is responsive in the hospital, there is still no final certainty “that we have won.”

Health experts pointed out that complications after the operation could still be life-threatening. Kalinak is standing in for Fico during his absence.

The government office in Bratislava said additional information on the 59-year-old politician’s state of health will be released “when the situation allows.”

The office called on the media, politicians and the general public to disseminate only officially confirmed information, saying misleading false information and speculation have also been reported by the media.

–IANS/DPA

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Prague, May 17 (IANS/DPA) Slovakia’s former president Ivan Gasparovic on Friday expressed hopes that a deep schism within the country will be overcome following the attempted assassination this week of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

“Slovakia is totally divided,” 83-year-old Gasparovic lamented on Czech public television, adding that society had at least found some unity in this terrible moment.

“Even those who have completely different views on Fico and politics in Slovakia have realised that things can’t go on like this,” said Gasparovic, a lawyer who headed the country from 2004 to 2014.

The National Council, Slovakia’s unicameral parliament, had become “a circus tent and a boxing ring” where politicians’ private affairs are discussed or hatred is spread, he continued.

On Wednesday, Fico, 59, was hit by several gunshots fired by a single attacker as he greeted supporters in a square in the central Slovakian town of Handlová.

He is currently recovering in the university hospital in nearby Banska Bystrica after a long operation.

Regarding Fico’s condition after the surgery, Gasparovic said: “Not everything is in order, but his state is such that we have great hope that it will end well.”

A 71-year-old suspect who was charged on Thursday with the attempted murder of Fico was described by authorities as a “lone wolf” motivated by political grievances.

–IANS/DPA

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Moscow, May 17 (IANS/DPA) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that at the moment he has no plans to capture the city of Kharkiv, but that Russian forces were establishing a buffer zone in the area because of attacks from Kharkiv on the Russian region of Belgorod.

He made his comments in response to a question from Russian state media reporters at the end of his visit to China in the city of Harbin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the heavily attacked Kharkiv region on Thursday and said the situation had stabilised. The area has come under heavy Russian attack recently.

Putin said the buffer zone around Kharkiv is needed because the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, was being massively bombarded with drones and missiles from Kharkiv.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently deputy head of the National Security Council, described Zelensky’s trip to Kharkiv as a farewell visit.

Russian leaders repeatedly refer to Kharkiv as a Russian city, leading many experts to assume that the Kremlin wants to annex the region. Putin’s denial, at least for the time being, is the first time he has stated that there are no current plans to do so.

–IANS/DPA

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Kabul, May 17 (IANS) Five persons were killed and five others sustained injury as a result of a clash between the border forces of Afghanistan and Pakistan over the past four days, Afghan local media outlet TOLO News reported Friday.

The clash between Afghan and Pakistan border forces, reports Xinhua News Agency, has been continuing close to the border area in Zazai Aryub and Dand wa Patan districts of the eastern Paktia province, the private media outlet added.

Afghan officials have yet to make any comment.

–IANS

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Seoul, May 17 (IANS/DPA) The influential sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, has rejected accusations that her country is engaged in prohibited arms trading with Russia.

As reported by state media on Friday, the high-ranking official of the ruling Workers’ Party described it as an absurd rumour that was “interwoven with a distorted view and fiction.”

“We have no intention of exporting our military technical capabilities to any country or releasing them,” Kim said.

North Korea, which is largely isolated due to its nuclear weapons programme, is internationally accused of supplying weapons and ammunition for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The governments in Moscow and Pyongyang have repeatedly dismissed reports of such arms deliveries.

However, the US government maintains that Pyongyang supplied missile launchers and ballistic missiles, among other equipment, in violation of UN prohibition resolutions.

The South Korean Defence Ministry reported that thousands of containers of ammunition and military equipment have been sent from North Korea to Russia since last July.

–IANS/DPA

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