News Mania Desk / Piyal Chatterjee/ 28th December 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia is open to Slovakia’s request to organize peace talks with Ukraine to end a war that Russia is keen to resolve.
Putin, who received Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Kremlin this week, stated that Fico, an ardent opponent of the European Union’s military assistance for Ukraine, has offered his nation to host negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
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 regarded as part of a rising group of EU member states in central and eastern Europe that are skeptical of Ukrainian assistance and favorable of engagement with Russia.
Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar stated that Slovakia has always advocated a peaceful resolution to the conflict and that Putin’s remarks were a “positive signal” for an end to the war. “Slovak diplomacy is prepared to actively contribute to the peace process in this way, and we have also communicated this option to our Ukrainian partners,” Blanar said in a statement issued late Thursday.
Putin has frequently stated that Russia is ready to discussions to resolve the crisis with Kyiv, but that it will still accomplish its objectives in Ukraine. On Thursday, Putin stated that Russia may employ the new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as Oreshnik again, but he was in no hurry to do so. “We do not exclude the possibility of using it both today and tomorrow, if necessary,” the Russian president stated. If required, Putin stated, Russia may employ more powerful intermediate-range weapons.
