Swiss President Viola Amherd says the Ukraine peace conference that her country is organizing for later this month is just the beginning of negotiations and would likely be followed by talks with Russia.
"It is clear to us that we will not sign a peace agreement at the end of the conference," Amherd said in comments published by Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Friday.
Both parties need to be at the table for peace, she said, referring to the fact that Russia has not been invited to attend the Swiss summit. "Russia could then be present at a possible follow-up conference," she said.
Switzerland invited around 160 countries to discuss possible ways to achieve lasting peace in Ukraine. Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, has not received an invitation. Ukraine is taking part.
So far, more than 80 countries have confirmed they will join the meeting in Switzerland taking place on June 15 and 16.
Moscow said Russia would not have attended even if it had been invited.
Amherd went on to say that the conference was intended to create a platform for dialogue at which the first step would be to discuss how peace could be achieved in Ukraine.
It would not be about peace in Ukraine in the narrow sense, but "only" about humanitarian issues, nuclear safety, freedom of navigation and food security, she said.
"We want to build trust and seek solutions to these issues, which are important for the civilian population and then also for peace later on," she said.