When asked why the prime ministers went to a country where a war is raging, the Prime Minister replied that "In Slovenia we know how the Ukrainians feel, as 30 years ago we were in a similar situation when we were attacked by the Yugoslav Army and when no one visited Slovenia to support us. We know exactly what the difference is between sending messages or preparing video conferences and seeing the actual situation on site. What we see on screen is often not the same as what is actually happening." He further added that while his visit to Ukraine took place without any official protocol, the meetings were very substantive. "We discussed with Ukrainian President Zelensky the coordination of relief efforts for refugees, technical assistance, assistance to the media and other types of assistance they need," said Prime Minister Janša.

He went on to say that, in his view, the Ukrainians will never surrender, that they will fight to the end and that they will win. "However, the situation is difficult, they need our help, and, without putting too fine a point on it, it is clear that the most vital assistance they need, in addition to everything that needs to be done to help people in the war zone, is military assistance. We need to give them what we can so that they can defend themselves, as they are not defending only Ukraine, but European values," said the Prime Minister, adding that Ukrainians are defending the value of freedom to choose the system one wants to live in, alliances, a way of life. "They are fighting for all of this," said the Prime Minister.

As regards the closure of the airspace over Ukraine, the Prime Minister recalled that he had proposed its closure before the start of the Russian invasion.  "If the no-fly zone had been imposed before Russia invaded Ukraine, everything we are witnessing today would certainly not have happened, as, in that case, Russia’s attack on Ukraine would have implied an attack on NATO, and that would never have happened, given the fact that we are familiar with the nature of the relationship between Russia and NATO. The risk of imposing a no-fly zone in the middle of the war is much greater, but we can do something close to that, we can give Ukrainians modern weapons to defend their skies, because if they can’t defend their skies, there will be not only two, but 10 to 15 million refugees in Europe," added the Prime Minister.

Asked whether there was a distinction between refugees from Ukraine and from other war zones, the Prime Minister replied that Slovenia had hosted tens of thousands of refugees from Bosnia for many years during the war in that area. "It didn’t matter what nationality the refugees were, the majority of them being women and children. We also accepted many families fleeing from Syria," said the Prime Minister, making it clear that Slovenia was defending the EU’s Schengen border and that there was a clear distinction between refugees coming from a war zone and economic migrants who only wanted to avail themselves of certain benefits and social rights. "When NATO withdrew from Afghanistan, we coordinated a common European response as the country presiding the Council of the EU and we made it clear that we would help anyone who was in danger because they had worked with the previous government and with Western or NATO forces, but also that we could not accept half the population of Afghanistan wanting to flee for economic reasons. It is very important that we see and understand the difference between refugees who are leaving a country because of war, because their lives are in danger, and economic migrants who only want to leave because they will have a better life in Europe, Canada, the United States. We can welcome them, but there must be a clear distinction. If we were to devote a lot of energy and effort to economic migrants, that would be to sideline those who really need help," concluded Prime Minister Janša.