Slovak Prime Minister: Zelenskyy should call Putin if he wants a meeting

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Volodymyr Zelenskyy told him during a personal conversation in Armenia that he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin "in any format," and that the Ukrainian president should now phone the Kremlin directly if he wants a meeting, according to Fico's Facebook post.

Fico said he conveyed this position to the Russian side during his visit to Moscow. The Kremlin denies any such message was passed.

Fico's account: a private conversation in Armenia

"I passed a message from the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the President of Russia. During our personal meeting in Armenia, he told me that he was ready to meet with Putin in any format. The answer is obvious: if the president of Ukraine is interested in a meeting, he should contact his Russian counterpart by phone," Fico said.

Fico separately welcomed the idea of extending the ceasefire, saying it could create space for diplomatic efforts and a negotiating process.

Moscow and Kyiv tell different stories

People around Putin say Fico did not pass any message from the Ukrainian president during their conversation, although the topic of Ukraine was mentioned.

Fico arrived in Moscow on 8 May and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier next to the Kremlin wall. On the same day, he said he is a kind of "black sheep" in the EU. Before the visit, Bratislava had said Fico intended to pass a "message" from Zelenskyy to Putin and could obtain "valuable information" from the Russian president on how he sees efforts to end the war.

The Office of the President of Ukraine offered a more limited version of the Armenia conversation, saying Zelenskyy told Fico that Ukraine is ready to meet Russia at leaders' level in a substantive format.

Background: Putin's terms and a disputed prisoner-exchange claim

Putin said earlier he was ready to meet Zelenskyy even in a third country, rather than only in Moscow, but stipulated that such a meeting should be "final" and "for signing a treaty," not for negotiations to end the war Russia started, according to Russian state agencies TASS and RIA Novosti.

"The meeting with Zelenskyy should be the final point of the settlement process, not negotiations," Putin said. He added that things were moving toward "completion of the Ukrainian conflict" — his term for the war Russia started against Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

"The US sincerely strives for a settlement, but this is primarily a matter for Russia and Ukraine," Putin said.

Putin also said the EU negotiator should be someone who "didn't say nasty things" about Russia, and proposed former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Schröder is a personal friend of Putin and headed the board of directors of Nord Stream 2 AG, the company created to build the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Putin further claimed that on 5 May Russia handed Ukraine a "list of 500 Ukrainian servicemen who are in Russia" for exchange, and said Ukrainian representatives "directly said they were not ready for this exchange." He did not specify which Ukrainian representatives he meant.

A source in the Office of the President of Ukraine told Suspilne the claim is not true and that work on a 1,000-for-1,000 exchange is ongoing. "Vladimir Putin's claims that Ukraine has allegedly told Russia it was not ready for the prisoner exchange do not correspond to reality. Since the agreement was reached through US mediation, the actual implementation of the exchange depends on the American side's ability to act as its guarantor. Active contacts on this issue are underway," the source said.

US President Donald Trump previously announced a three-day ceasefire in the war on 9, 10, and 11 May, along with a new 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange. Zelenskyy confirmed both the three-day ceasefire and the exchange. On 25 April, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to hold another round of talks in Azerbaijan in a Ukraine–US–Russia format.