Putin open to accepting NATO member Slovakia as 'neutral site' for Ukraine peace talks

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said that he was open to accepting Slovakia's offer as a place for peace negotiations with Ukraine.

Putin's comments follow Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico's surprise and controversial visit to Moscow on Sunday, which is widely seen as a blow to the EU bloc's unity against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

''He first and foremost spoke about a peaceful settlement in Ukraine. He was pushing it. I don’t know what claims could be made against him by Europe or anyone else. But he spoke about this and focused his attention on this," the Russian leader said at a briefing in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

Putin added that Fico offered to host peace talks with Ukraine in Slovakia, an option Russia will consider, as Slovakia's position on the fighting in Ukraine is "acceptable" for Moscow.

"Slovakia takes a neutral position from our point of view; this position is neutral, and this is an acceptable option for us," Putin said.

Slovakia, one of the countries that relies heavily on Russian gas, is both a NATO and European Union member.

After Ukraine confirmed that it would not extend a contract allowing the transit of Russian gas that expires at the end of the year, Slovakia raised concerns about the prospect of losing gas supplies.

Fico said he visited Moscow because of Kyiv's unwillingness to extend the gas deliveries via Ukraine after speaking about it with Volodymr Zelenskyy at a summit in Brussels last week, a possibility that the Ukrainian head of state resolutely rejected.

The Slovakian prime minister is supported by coalition partners from the Slovak National Party. According to Deputy Prime Minister Tomáš Taraba, negotiations with Vladimir Putin are a "solution to Slovakia's basic problem of