MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia was open to a Slovak proposal to host peace talks with Ukraine to end a conflict he said Russia wanted to bring to an end.
Putin, who received Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the Kremlin this week, said that Fico, a staunch opponent of the European Union’s military support for Ukraine, had offered his country to host talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Putin said the Slovak authorities “would be happy to provide their own country as a negotiating platform. We are not against it if it comes to that. Why not? Since Slovakia has such a neutral position.”
Slovakia is part of a growing camp of central and eastern European EU member states skeptical of support for Ukraine and supportive of negotiations with Russia.
Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said Slovakia has long been looking for a peaceful solution to the conflict and Putin’s comments were a “positive signal” for an end to the war.
“Slovak diplomacy is ready to actively contribute to the peace process in this way and we have also communicated this option to Ukrainian partners,” Blanar said at a joint Cabinet meeting in October in a statement released late Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly criticized Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, for the friendly tone Fico has taken toward Russia since returning to power after a 2023 election.
Putin has repeatedly said that Russia is ready for talks to end the conflict with Kiev but will still achieve its goals in Ukraine.
Putin said on Thursday that Russia could deploy the new medium-range hypersonic missile called Oreshnik again but was in no hurry to do so.
“We do not exclude the possibility of using it today and, if necessary, tomorrow,” Putin said.
If necessary, Putin said, Russia could use more powerful medium-range weapons.
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