The Japan Times - Slovakia says ready to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks

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.

"We offer Slovak soil for such negotiations," Slovakia's Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said on Facebook, nearly three years after the start of the 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.

- 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.

South Korea's spy agency said on Friday that a North Korean soldier who was captured while fighting for Russia against Ukraine had died from his wounds.

It was the first such fatality among North Korean forces since Kyiv and Western powers reported Pyongyang's involvement in the conflict in recent months, in what was seen as a major escalation.

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.

Friday's confirmation came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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.

Y.Mori--JT