MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Slovakia had offered to be a “platform” for possible peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, nearly three years since the launch of Moscow’s offensive.

Putin told a televised press conference Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico “said that if there are any negotiations, they would be happy to provide their country as a platform.”

He added that Russia was “not against it,” praising Slovakia’s “neutral position.”

Fico, one of the few European leaders to maintain ties with the Kremlin, met with the Russian president in Moscow on 22 December.

His visit came despite Western efforts to isolate Putin and present a united front in support for Kyiv.

Slovakia, a European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, has already halted military aid to Ukraine since autumn 2023 under Fico’s government, and called for peace talks.

Meanwhile, the interior ministry accused the Ukrainian security services for instigating a spate of 55 arson and bomb attacks on banks, post offices and police cars across the country.

The interior ministry said in a statement that 44 suspects had been arrested, many of them elderly people and minors “looking for easy money.”

It said perpetrators faced up to 20 years in prison.

“Suspects acted on the instructions of anonymous supervisors received by telephone or messengers,” it said.

“Ukrainian security services are behind the organization of these crimes,” it said, calling for “vigilance.”

“Do not let yourselves be intimated or deceived,” it said.

The ministry said 55 such “illegal acts” were reported between 18 and 26 December in several regions.

“As a rule, the perpetrators incited citizens to commit crimes by promising monetary rewards.”