A Ukrainian man died after being stabbed twice at the SOG hotel in the Slovak city of Trenčín overnight into 5 November, Ukraine's foreign ministry said. Police have detained another Ukrainian on suspicion of the crime and are looking for a third man.
"All those named are civilians. Two of them were in Slovakia on a work trip and are not members of Ukraine's Defence Forces," the ministry said in an official statement. It urged people not to spread false information about the case.
The foreign ministry gave the details of the wounds and the arrest, citing the regional police directorate in Trenčín. The man had stab and cut wounds to the heart area and the abdomen. He died from those wounds and from severe internal bleeding.
The regional criminal police in Trenčín have opened a criminal case for premeditated murder.
The third man was at the scene, but his role has not been made public.
The hotel is in the city centre in western Slovakia, near the faculty hospital.
At first the case was described as a clash between two Ukrainian soldiers who had come to Slovakia for military training. A Slovak magazine reported that a 53-year-old Ukrainian attacked a fellow countryman with a knife, and that the victim died on the way to hospital. The same magazine said both men served in the Ukrainian air force.
Kyiv denied this. Even before the foreign ministry's statement, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat rejected the account.
On Thursday, Trenčín hosted the main part of a meeting between the presidents of the Visegrad Four and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Czech president Petr Pavel represented the Czech Republic.
Baseless suspicions of a link between the killing and the meeting appeared in Facebook groups. Diplomatic sources said there is no such link and that the speculation on social media is completely wrong. They called on people to wait for the results of the investigation. The same sources said Slovak police are working on the theory of an unfortunate coincidence.
Ukraine's embassy in Slovakia has contacted the victim's wife and will help her arrange the funeral.