Second Ukraine peace conference may take place in a year or two – Latvian president

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics predicts that the second international conference on finding ways to bring about peace in Ukraine may take place in a year or two.

He said this in a comment to Ukrinform on the sidelines of the Peace Summit in Switzerland on Sunday.

Commenting on the assumptions that are being made on the sidelines of the Peace Summit in Switzerland that the second peace conference may take place this autumn, Rinkevics said that this process might take more time -- a year or two.

At the same time, he noted that he would not make assumptions about the timing of convening the next peace conference. Currently, according to him, it is necessary to work on the practical implementation of the results of the first peace summit.

"This is only the beginning of a peaceful political process. I would be very cautious about saying that it will progress very quickly. I would say it could take a year or two," the Latvian president said.

He added that the holding of the second peace summit would largely depend on political processes in many member countries of the EU, NATO and the UN.

Commenting on manipulative statements made by Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the eve of the summit, Rinkevics noted that perhaps this was a very good reminder to the world community that Russia is not fighting for its security interests; it is fighting to destroy Ukraine or at least grab as much land as possible.

"I think that this kind of 'offer' caused more harm than good to the Russian Federation," he said.