Kremlin: Swiss summit on Ukraine 'completely useless'
Mr. Dmitry Peskov - spokesman for the Russian President told RT news agency that holding peace talks without Russia's presence is absurd and unreasonable.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 28 that the upcoming peace conference hosted by Switzerland to seek a solution to the situation related to the Ukraine conflict is "absolutely useless".
According to RT, the summit is scheduled to take place from June 15 to 16 at the Burgenstock Resort near Lucerne. The summit is expected to revolve around the roadmap proposed by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to end the conflict with Russia.
More than 160 countries have been invited to participate, including members of the G7, G20, BRICS and the EU. However, Russia has not been invited to join the negotiations.
“In our opinion, this conference has absolutely no prospects… because it would be absurd to gather and seriously discuss the Ukrainian conflict without our participation,” Peskov told reporters. The Kremlin spokesman added that at this point, the West had decided to get involved in such “absurdities.”
Moscow has previously called the proposed conference “useless” and said it would not attend, even if invited. Ukraine has said Russia would only be invited if it agreed to a series of preconditions, but the Kremlin has said that is unrealistic.
Mr Zelensky's roadmap to resolving the crisis has been promoted by the leader since 2022, calling for the withdrawal of all Russian forces from all territories that Ukraine considers its own, Moscow paying reparations and opening a war crimes tribunal.
The Kremlin dismissed the proposal as “unrealistic” and a sign of Kiev’s unwillingness to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Moscow has maintained its readiness to discuss but said it would not accept a deal that ignored its national interests.
In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin also said that Moscow was ready for a diplomatic solution but that holding talks without it was “pointless”.
According to media reports, leaders of several BRICS countries, notably Brazil and South Africa, will not attend the upcoming event. According to Yury Ushakov, aide to the Russian president on international affairs, China is another important BRICS member that is likely to skip the meeting in Switzerland.
China has also previously stressed that discussions on a peaceful solution to the Ukraine conflict must inevitably include Russia.
US President Joe Biden is also reportedly planning to skip the Swiss conference and instead attend a fundraising event in Hollywood.
Peskov also dismissed reports of a possible peace conference in Saudi Arabia, calling it “hypothetical.” Earlier on May 27, Bloomberg quoted EU officials as saying the bloc was trying to arrange a conference in Saudi Arabia next fall with Russia’s participation.
