Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico may deliver a message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Russia’s Vladimir Putin during his trip to Moscow this weekend, a senior official in Bratislava said Thursday.
Slovak foreign ministry State Secretary Rastislav Chovanec said Fico will not attend the annual Victory Day parade on Saturday, but he will lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin to commemorate the end of World War II, according to the TASR news agency.
“In parallel, [Fico] will also have a meeting with the Russian president, to whom he may deliver messages from the Ukrainian president,” Chovanec was quoted as saying in the Slovak parliament.
The contents of Zelensky’s alleged message to Putin were not made public. Fico and Zelensky have been in contact twice over the last week, Chovanec said.
Ukraine has not commented on whether Zelensky asked Fico to deliver a message to the Russian leader.
Fico is among a small group of European leaders who have maintained relatively warm relations with Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Slovak-Ukrainian relations deteriorated after Russian oil flows via the Druzhba oil pipeline stopped early this year and only resumed in recent weeks.
“[Fico] can also obtain valuable information from the Russian president regarding how he views efforts to end the war,” Chovanec added.
State Secretary Marek Eštok and Tibor Gašpar, deputy speaker of Slovakia’s parliament, will reportedly accompany Fico on his visit to Moscow.
Putin will be joined by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith and Malaysian King Sultan Ibrahim at the Red Square military parade on Saturday.
The Russian-backed heads of Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as the recently elected leader of Bosnia’s ethnic Serbs and the former and current leaders of Republika Srpska, will also join the commemorations.
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