MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Thursday said that Ukraine peace talks due to be held in Switzerland in June made “no sense” unless Russia took part.
Switzerland on Wednesday announced that a high-level conference on the Ukraine conflict would be held on June 15-16, but without Russia.
Ukraine and up to 100 countries would attend the conference at the luxury Burgenstock resort near the central city of Lucerne, hosted by Swiss President Viola Amherd.
“We said many times that the process of (peace) talks without Russia makes no sense,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked the conference, saying during a meeting with his Belarusian ally and counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that “it would be funny if it were not sad.”
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any action on Ukraine that “ignores Russia’s position” was “detached from reality” and had “no perspective.”
She also criticized the “peace formula” put forward by President Volodymyr Zelensky, which calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, financial reparations from Moscow and the creation of a special tribunal to judge Russian officials.
“It is common knowledge that the ‘Zelensky formula’ does not envisage compromises or alternatives and totally ignores the proposals of China, Brazil, African and Arab states,” Zakharova said.
She also said Switzerland “cannot be trusted” to be neutral because it “defends Ukraine’s positions, supports the Kyiv regime, applies anti-Russian sanctions and adopted strategies that exclude Russia from the European security system.”
The US said it had not yet decided on its participation at the conference but scoffed at earlier Russian allegations that the summit would be a pre-election project by President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party.
“Obviously, that is an absurd allegation by the Russian government,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“If this is a diplomatic meeting that the Ukrainian government supports and wants to engage in, we certainly support their right to do so,” he said.
The Swiss government agreed during a January visit by Zelensky to organize a peace conference this year.
It said in a statement on Wednesday that “there is currently sufficient international support for a high-level conference to launch the peace process.”
Traditionally neutral Switzerland has from the start insisted that Moscow must eventually be brought into the talks and has sought to attract China and other emerging powers to the conference.
Kremlin says talks about Ukraine without Russia ‘make no sense’
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Kremlin says talks about Ukraine without Russia ‘make no sense’
Putin says developing Russia’s nuclear forces ‘absolute priority’
- Putin vowed to keep “strengthening the army and navy” and draw on military experience from the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that developing Russia’s nuclear forces was now an “absolute priority” following the expiry of its last remaining nuclear treaty with the US.
“The development of the nuclear triad, which guarantees Russia’s security and ensures effective strategic deterrence and a balance of forces in the world, remains an absolute priority,” Putin said in a video message.
His speech came on Russia’s “Defender of the Fatherland Day,” a holiday that is an occasion for military pomp and Kremlin-sponsored patriotism.
Putin vowed to keep “strengthening the army and navy” and draw on military experience from the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine.
All branches of the armed forces would be improved, he said, including their “combat readiness, their mobility, and their ability to operate in all conditions, even the most difficult.”
Putin’s remarks came just two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s assault on Ukraine that sparked a war that has shattered towns, uprooted millions and killed large numbers on both sides.
Moscow and Washington — the world’s two main nuclear powers — are no longer bound by any arms control pact since the New START agreement expired earlier this month.
But Russia said it would continue taking a “responsible” approach to strategic nuclear capability and respecting the limits set on its arsenal.
