News roundup - Sunday, 23 February

Russia's aggression against Ukraine must end, Fajon says

LJUBLJANA - Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said the Russian aggression against Ukraine must end. "After three years of flagrant violations of international law, Russia's aggression must end and we must achieve a ceasefire and sufficient security guarantees for Ukraine," she wrote on the eve of the third anniversary of the Ukraine war. She also said that "Slovenia is committed to a lasting and just peace in Ukraine, and both Ukraine and EU member states must be at the negotiating table," adding that Slovenia will support peace proposals based on the UN Charter that respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Pogačar wins UAE Tour third time around

DUBAI, UAE - Slovenian rider Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) won his third UAE Tour around the United Arab Emirates, after winning it in 2021 and 2022, opening the racing season of 2025 in the best possible way. He won today's mountain stage of 176 kilometres to Mount Jebel Haafet with a 7.6km solo move. Overall, he finished the tour 1:14 minutes before Italy's Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and 1:19 minutes before Spain's Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious). In a statement for the tour's organisers, he said that he was thrilled with "a really good day".

Data centre in Maribor planned for June 2026

LJUBLJANA - A consortium of three companies will build a state-of-the-art data centre which will cater to the country's long-term research data storage and host a new supercomputer in Maribor. Construction of a EUR 14.8 million investment, tax excluded, is expected to start in the coming weeks and trial operations in June 2026. The consortium of NTR Inženiring, Advant, and Energovat was the only bidder responding to the tender. It will design, construct and set-up the data centre, including supplying the technological equipment. The centre will be run by the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia (ARNES), significantly upgrading the country's open science infrastructure.

Minimum wage in Slovenia 7th highest in EU, growth among lowest

LJUBLJANA - Minimum wage in Slovenia this year is the seventh highest among the 22 EU member states in which minimum wage is determined by law, shows data provided by the EU Agency for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). This year, the minimum wage in Slovenia was set at EUR 1,278 gross following an indexation of 1.9% to match the annual inflation in December, However, the third lowest indexation for 2025 in the 22 countries. The gross minimum wage this year is the highest in Luxembourg (EUR 2,638), followed by Ireland (EUR 2,282), the Netherlands (EUR 2,193), Germany (EUR 2,122) and Belgium (EUR 2,070).

Ski jumper Nika Prevc wins sixth consecutive World Cup event

HINZENBACH, Austria - Slovenian ski jumper Nika Prevc is continuing her winning World Cup streak, recording her second win this weekend, and sixth consecutive win this season. With 244 points, she beat Germany's Selina Freitag by 2.5 points, with the rest lagging behind by more than 17 points. In the overall standings, she is one step away from her second overall victory. She has a 455-point lead over Germany's Katharina Schmid, meaning she could seal her overall victory with a fifth place in the next race.