Putin: Slovakia May Host Peace Talks with Ukraine

By Staff, Agencies

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country is open to Slovakia's proposal to host peace talks with Ukraine aimed at ending the conflict.

Putin, who hosted Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Kremlin earlier this week, revealed that Fico, a vocal critic of European Union military support for Ukraine, had suggested Slovakia as a potential venue for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

The Russian President said the Slovakian authorities "...would be happy to provide their own country as a platform for negotiations. We are not opposed, if it comes to that. Why not? Since Slovakia takes such a neutral position."

Slovakia is seen as one of a growing camp of central and eastern European EU member states that are skeptical of support for Ukraine, and supportive of negotiations with Russia.

Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar stated that Slovakia has long advocated for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, calling Putin's remarks a "positive signal" for ending the war.

Blanar said in a statement released on Thursday that "Slovak diplomacy is prepared to actively contribute to the peace process in this way and we have also communicated this option to the Ukrainian partners" during a joint cabinet meeting in October.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Fico of attempting to assist Putin by continuing to import gas from Russia.

Zelensky indicated that European Union leaders had observed Fico, who visited Moscow on Sunday, and his resistance to decreasing energy reliance on Russia, suggesting that this implies "he wants to help Putin earn money to fund the war and weaken Europe."

He expressed on social media platform X that "we believe that such assistance to Putin is immoral."

On Thursday, Russia’s FM Sergey Lavrov explained that reaching a truce in the Ukrainian conflict is a path to nowhere, pointing out that Russia will not be satisfied with idle talks about a settlement.

“We cannot be satisfied with an idle talk. So far, all we hear is talk about the need to come up with some kind of truce... A truce is a path to nowhere, we need final legal agreements that will fix all the conditions for ensuring the security of Russia and the legitimate security interests of our neighbors, but in a context that will consolidate in an international legal way the impossibility of violating these agreements,” the top Russian diplomat said.