Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs told FRANCE 24 in an interview from the Latvian capital Riga on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. But, Rinkevics said, he believes such a plan "will fail", as the Kremlin doesn’t have the military capacity to occupy Ukraine and "winning over the minds of Ukrainians after what the Russians are doing is almost impossible".
The Latvian foreign minister reiterated that his government endorses Ukraine's membership in the EU and granting Kyiv candidate status.