Slovakia to host peace conference on Ukraine in March

BRATISLAVA -- Slovakia will host a peace conference on the Ukraine crisis in March, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on a radio talk show on Saturday.

His government has been approached by the German Social Democrats with a proposal to organize a peace conference (on Ukraine) in Slovakia, according to local news agency TASR.

"It's going to concern top-level officials from Social Democratic parties. I'm glad that we've received such an offer, and I'm glad that the peace conference will take place indeed, in Kosice in early March," TASR cited Fico as saying.

Fico has been the leader of the Direction-Social Democracy party of Slovakia since 1999. He led the party to a landslide victory in the 2012 parliament election and has been the country's PM ever since.

The Slovak PM said "strange political games" are being played in Ukraine, and the ceasefire deal expected to take effect on Sunday morning would do little to prevent the crisis devolving into a major war.