While flying to Moscow on Thursday, Fico was forced to take a detour after Lithuania and other Baltic nations closed their airspace to the Slovak and Serbian leaders in protest against their planned attendance at the Moscow event.
Fico, who last met with Putin in December, has aligned himself with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a pro-Russian voice in the EU, opposing military aid to Ukraine and vowing to block its NATO membership aspirations.
Last July, Orbán sparked uproar among European leaders when he visited Moscow, shaking hands with Putin on that trip.
In stark contrast to Fico’s presence in Moscow, several Western ministers and top diplomats — including EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský — traveled to Ukraine on Friday to honor the victims of Russian aggression and discuss the creation of a special tribunal to investigate alleged war crimes by Kremlin forces.