Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani will take part in a conference in Switzerland on 15-16 June aimed at ending the devastating Russia-Ukraine war - now in its third year - Tajani said on Thursday.
“I will participate in the peace conference in Switzerland that (Ukraine's president Volodymyr) Zelensky especially wanted," Tajani told private TV network Canale 5' Mattino Cinque programme.
"I'll also attend the Ukraine reconstruction summit taking place in Berlin on 11 June," Tajani added.
Over a hundred countries and organisations have so far pledged to take part in next week's peace conference , according to Zelensky.
Russian officials have not been invited to the summit whose aim is to win broad international backing for Kiev's vision of the terms needed to end the war. China and Saudi Arabia are among key absentees from the conference, according to reports.
France 's president Emmanuel Macron and United States vice president Kamal Harris will attend the Swiss peace summit.
The foreign ministry will publish the final list of participating states shortly before the start of the conference, the Swissinfo news site reported on Thursday.
Last month Russia launched a massive ground assault in the northeast Kharkiv region, opening a few front, capturing several villages and posing a serious threat to Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border.
After growing pressure from Ukraine and other European states, the US agreed to change its policy and allow Kyiv to strike Russian soil with Western weapons. Russia's president Vladimir Putin has since warned that Moscow could allow other states to use its long-range weapons to strike Western targets amid fears of a possible World War III.
Italy has vowed it will never go to war with Russia and will not allow any arms it supplies to Ukraine to be used to hit targets outside its borders, prompting Putin to call it "one of the more moderate European countries".
