Putin Says Slovakia Could Host Peace Talks with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (Dec. 26) that Russia is open to a Slovakian proposal to host peace talks with Ukraine to end a conflict he said Russia was determined to bring to a conclusion.

Putin, who this week hosted Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Kremlin, said that Fico, an outspoken opponent of European Union support for Ukraine, had offered his country as to host talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Slovakia, which heavily relies on Russian gas, has raised concerns about the prospect of losing supplies as a contract allowing its transit through Ukraine expires by year-end.

Putin 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 sceptical of support for Ukraine, and supportive of negotiations with Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly criticised Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, for the friendly tone Fico has struck towards Russia since his return to power after an election in 2023.

Putin has repeatedly said that Russia is open to talks to end the conflict with Kyiv, but that it would nevertheless achieve its goals in Ukraine.

Putin said on Thursday that Russia could use the new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as Oreshnik again but was in no hurry to do so.

Other Topics of Interest

Poll: 45% of Ukrainians Think Trump’s Win Could Accelerate War’s End

The December poll said half of the Ukrainians surveyed think US President-elect Donald Trump, with his rhetoric of ending the war, will make good on his words.

“We do not exclude the possibility of using it both today and tomorrow, if necessary,” Putin said.

If necessary, Putin said, Russia could use more powerful intermediate-range weapons.

Up to US to make the first move?

In the meantime, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was willing to work with Donald Trump’s incoming administration to improve relations if the US has serious intentions to do so but it was up to Washington to make the first move.

“If the signals that are coming from the new team in Washington to restore the dialogue that Washington interrupted after the start of a special military operation (war in Ukraine), are serious, of course, we will respond to them,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.

“But the Americans broke (off) the dialogue, so they should make the first move,” Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister for over 20 years, told reporters in Moscow.

Lavrov said Russia saw no point in a weak ceasefire to freeze the war, but Moscow wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace that would ensure the security of both Russia and its neighbors.

“A truce is a path to nowhere,” Lavrov said.

“We need final legal agreements that will fix all the conditions for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation and, of course, the legitimate security interests of our neighbours,” Lavrov said.

He added that Moscow wanted the legal documents drafted in such a way as to ensure “the impossibility of violating these agreements”.

See the original here.