"Ze was new". Slovak diplomat explains why he told Epstein about his meeting with the Ukrainian president

Former Slovak top diplomat Miroslav Lajčák denied any connection between his meetings with the then newly elected president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and American financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which took place three days apart in June 2019. The ex-official, who was the head of the OSCE at the time of the events, said this for new text by LIGA.net.

The meeting between Lajčák and Zelenskyy took place on June 13, in the first year of the latter's presidency. Prior to that, the Slovak diplomat wrote to Epstein about the possibility to see each other for lunch on June 16, and that he was, incidentally, on his way to see the new leader of Ukraine, according to published data from the US Department of Justice. In response, the financier said he could organize a lunch with the diplomat.

"Trust me, these trips are totally unrelated, there is no linkage. It is a pure coincidence that the two visits were close to each other. Everything else is conspiracy," Lajčák said to LIGA.net.

When asked why he told Epstein that he was going to meet with the Ukrainian president, the diplomat admitted his interest in the politician: "Ze was new. But that was it."

Lajčák also said that he would not share professional information with a person who "unrelated to my professional duties."

However, other published "Epstein files" contain correspondence between the financier's right-hand man Leslie Groff and Lajčák's assistant Wanda Siposova dated June 10, three days before the diplomat's meeting with Zelenskyy.

In particular, the letter contains the exact address of Epstein's Paris apartment, the code to the front door, and the financier's direct home number in case of emergency.

For decades, Lajčák was considered one of the most authoritative diplomats in Central and Eastern Europe, trusted with the most difficult international missions. However, on January 31, 2026, after the publication of the Epstein files, he was forced to resign from his position as national security advisor to the prime minister of Slovakia.

• "The Epstein Files" indicate that in 2019, shortly before his death, he could have been collecting information about president Zelenskyy and his office in the interests of Russian dictator Putin's Valdai Club. Lajčák could have been an instrument for this: read more about the situation in the new text by LIGA.net.