Slovakia confirms willingness to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks
- 27 December, 10:18
Slovakia on Friday expressed its interest in hosting the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine nearly three years after the start of Russia’s full-fledged invasion.
"We offer Slovak soil for such negotiations," Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said on Facebook. The minister stressed that the negotiations must take place "with the participation of all parties, and therefore also of Russia", unlike a previous summit in June in Switzerland. Blanar stated that his country had long sought a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict.
"We consider the statement of the Russian president as a positive signal to end this war, this bloodshed and this destruction as soon as possible," the Slovak minister said.
His statement follows Vladimir Putin’s statement on Thursday that Bratislava had offered to be a platform for the negotiations with Ukraine and that Kremlin “was not against” this offer. Putin hosted Slovakia’s pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico for talks on Thursday following Kyiv’s decision not to extend Russia’s gas deliveries to Slovakia via Ukraine.
It should be noted that Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly criticized Slovakia’s right-wing Prime Minister Fico for his friendly tone towards Kremlin despite Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine since February 2022.
