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By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent

This was unusually soft language from Vladimir Putin.

Ahead of his talks with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, the Kremlin leader said three things that struck a distinctly conciliatory tone regarding peace talks with Ukraine.

• First, that Moscow has “never objected” to Kyiv joining the EU;
• Second, that Russia was ready to cooperate with the US, and even work with Ukraine, at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (Russia seized the plant shortly after its invasion, and its ownership is one of the many wrangling points in the negotiations);
• And third, perhaps most importantly of all, that it’s possible “to find consensus” when it comes to security guarantees for Ukraine.

Europe will view the statements with scepticism, though.

Because whenever Russia says something that sounds like a climbdown, it often turns out not to be the case. Drill down in the details and you’ll normally find several strings attached.

Take the issue of security guarantees. After the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska, the White House seemed to believe that Russia had agreed to a NATO-style mutual defence mandate for Ukraine.

But when Europe started to explore how that’ll work in practice, Moscow began imposing conditions like no NATO peacekeepers, moving the discussions back to square one.

The “consensus” Vladimir Putin now appears to have in mind is unclear – it may just be a consensus on Russia’s terms.

Ukraine and its allies will also note that Putin’s softer tone still carried a hard edge.

Although he doesn’t oppose Ukraine joining the EU, he said NATO membership is out of the question – reiterating one of Russia’s longstanding red lines.

And he also repeated the Kremlin’s reasoning for launching its invasion – that Russia was acting in self-defence in response to Western aggression.

But Europe wasn’t his audience here; it was Donald Trump.

I think this was all part of the Kremlin leader’s courtship of the US president, to keep him onside and stave off any sanctions.

He’s trying to portray Russia as the party that wants peace, and Ukraine as the party that causes problems, hoping that any pressure that comes from Washington is directed at Kyiv.