(ANSA-AFP) - BRATISLAVA, 27 DIC - 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. "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.
bur/rlp/phz
/ (ANSA-AFP).
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