Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Uzhgorod, close to the Slovak-Ukrainian border, on September 5 and delivered a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin in what could be an  indirect approach  to start talks between the two presidents. 

Zelenskiy said they discussed the path to a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine and post-war security guarantees, as well as Europe’s energy independence. "Russian oil, just as Russian gas, has no future," Zelenskiy said, referring to Ukraine’s recent bombing of Russian pipelines delivering oil and gas to Central Europe.

Zelenskiy described the conversation with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico as “substantive.”

“Thank you for the meeting. It is important that we have this dialogue, and we will continue it,” Zelenskiy said.

The meeting, which took place in the western Ukrainian city, are the first confirmed attempts by Putin to communicate directly with Zelenskiy at a time when US President Donald Trump has been trying to bring Putin and Zelenskiy together for direct talks to halt the conflict in Ukraine.

“Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy today in Uzhgorod, near the Slovak-Ukrainian border,” a joint statement released after the talks said giving no more details.

Fico has just returned from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin in China where he had a one-on-one meeting as the only member of the EU to travel to attend the event.

Fico is along with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban one of the few EU leaders sympathetic to Russia and has constantly called for an end to the hostilities through dialogue. Trump’s efforts to organise a face-to-face meeting between Zelenskiy and Putin seem to have stalled. Putin on September 4 said he is still open to a meeting and invited Zelenskiy to come to Moscow, but Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin) rejected that offer out of hand.

In China, Fico told Putin that he wants normalised relations with Russia. Slovakia remains heavily dependent on Russian energy imports.

“Let’s go back to what used to be typical for countries when it comes to economic cooperation,” Fico told Putin, “for the safe and regular gas supplies that we receive through TurkStream,” alluding to the recent halts in oil imports via the Russian Druzhba oil pipeline for which Fico’s left-right government blamed Ukraine.

The approach by Putin via Fico comes as a coalition of the willing Paris summit on September 4 ended in failure after the top EU leaders called Trump at the end of the discussion to seek the White House’s support for their plan to send a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine if hostilities cease. Trump turned the tables on the COW leaders and berated them for continuing to import Russian oil and “funding the war.”

No details of the message delivered by Fico have leaked, but Putin has repeatedly said he wants a deal that deals with the “root causes” of the conflict and reflects the “realities on the ground. Analysts take that to mean Russia is seeking a wider reset of security arrangements in Europe that include not only security guarantees for Ukraine but for Russia as well. It also probably means that Putin wants western recognition of Russian sovereignty over the five occupied Ukrainian regions, a no-Nato guarantee from Ukraine and significant sanctions relief.

Energy row

Part of the discussions covered Slovakia's energy dependence on Russia that is causing friction with the EU that wants to wean itself off Russian oil and gas supplies completely

“America wants to seriously cut Russia’s income from energy exports — and that is the right path,” Zelenskiy said in a video address to an economic forum in Italy just before meeting Fico. “We will also discuss this issue with Fico.”

Following Fico’s meeting with Putin earlier in the week, he said his government is "extremely interested" in developing relations with Moscow and continuing to buy Russian oil and gas.

The two leaders also discussed the current efforts by the coalition of the willing to thrash out security guarantees for Ukraine and Zelenskiy claimed Slovakia "will not stand aside" while other European countries pledged post-war support. It is unclear what role Fico's government might play in those arrangements.

Zelenskiy also said that Slovakia supports Ukraine in its stalled EU accession bid in contrast to Hungary, which is actively blocking the process. Zelenskiy also said they talked about directions for bilateral cooperation in the economy, energy, and infrastructure. According to him, Slovakia will “not stay on the sidelines” and will “actively participate in the joint progress.”

“Slovakia supports Ukraine in its move toward the European Union. This is very significant. We also see that Ukraine and Moldova must continue moving together toward EU membership. It is also important that bilateral cooperation in economic, energy, and infrastructure matters here in our region strengthens our peoples, our countries,” Zelenskiy said in a statement.