BRATISLAVA: Slovakia on Friday confirmed its readiness to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, despite Kyiv’s accusation that it is playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader on Thursday called it “acceptable” for the country to become a “platform” for dialogue over the conflict, which US President-elect Donald Trump has said he could end after he takes office in January.

That prospect has raised concerns in Kyiv that a settlement could be imposed on terms favourable to Moscow, as Ukraine struggles on the battlefield. “If someone wants to organize peace talks in Slovakia, we will be ready and hospitable,” the country’s Prime Minister Robert Fico posted late Friday on Facebook.

Earlier, Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said on Facebook: “We offer Slovak soil for such negotiations.” The moves come nearly three years after the start of the full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine. Putin announced Thursday that Slovakia had offered to be a “platform” for possible peace talks and that Russia was “not against it”, praising Bratislava’s “neutral position”. But Putin reiterated his vow that his country would achieve “all the objectives in Ukraine”.

Slovak-Russian ties

Blanar said any talks must take place “with the participation of all parties, and therefore also of Russia”, unlike a previous summit in June in Switzerland. “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 minister said.

He said Slovakia had told Kyiv in October that it was available to host peace talks. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is one of only a handful of European leaders who have remained close to the Kremlin. He met with Putin in Moscow on December 22, provoking an angry reaction from Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday accused Fico of wanting to “help” Putin by continuing to import Russian gas. Despite being a NATO and European Union member, Slovakia has moved closer to Russia since the return to power of the nationalist Fico in late 2023.

Fico has stopped all military aid to Ukraine and accuses Kyiv of jeopardising his country’s supply of Russian gas, which he wants to keep buying. Fico, in his Facebook post, said that “by stopping the gas transit, President Zelensky will cause billions of damage to the EU.” “It seems that some big people in the EU don’t mind. The main thing is that in the name of an unrealistic goal of weakening Russia, Slavs will continue to kill each other,” he continued. — AFP

North Korean soldier

Kyiv says Russia is intensifying its offensive, using thousands of North Korean troops and launching strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the depths of winter. Zelensky said Friday that “several” wounded North Korean soldiers died after being captured by Ukrainian forces, accusing Russia of throwing them into battle with “minimal protection”.

South Korea’s spy agency said earlier on Friday that a North Korean soldier who was captured while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine had died of his wounds. Zelensky did not specify how many North Koreans had died after being captured by Ukrainian troops.

Kyiv and its allies say Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s military, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock incursion in August. Zelensky earlier said that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” so far as they joined Russian troops in combat.

Azerbaijan plane probe

The Ukraine war meanwhile fed into investigations of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan this week. The airline and Azerbaijan’s transport minister said Friday that the plane suffered physical “external interference”, citing preliminary results of an investigation, adding to speculation it was hit by a Russian air defence system.

The jet crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau on Wednesday, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, after attempting to land at its destination in the Russian city of Grozny and then diverting far off course across the Caspian Sea.

Russia’s aviation chief said Friday that Grozny was being attacked by Ukrainian drones at the time the plane had tried to land. Zelensky pointed the finger at Moscow but the Kremlin has declined to comment on reports the plane was accidentally shot down by Russian air defence missiles. — AFP