Russian President Vladimir Putin. File
| Photo Credit: AP
The Kremlin said on June 17 that a Swiss-hosted conference on the Ukraine war had produced negligible results and showed the futility of holding talks without Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the results of the meeting were “close to zero”. Russia remains open to dialogue with all countries that intend to conduct it and will continue to convey its position to these countries, he said.
President Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia was willing to end the war, but he set out conditions for Ukraine — renouncing its NATO ambitions and withdrawing troops from four regions claimed by Russia — that Kyiv rejected as tantamount to capitulation.
At the weekend summit in Switzerland, Western powers and their allies denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but failed to persuade major non-aligned States to join their final statement, and no country came forward to host a sequel.
80 countries attended the two-day talks at a Swiss Alpine resort at the behest of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, billed as a “peace summit” even though Moscow was not invited.
Russia ridiculed the event from afar. A decision by China to stay away all but assured that the summit would fail to achieve Ukraine’s goal of persuading major countries from the “global South” to join in isolating Russia. Brazil attended only as an “observer”. In the end, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Africa all withheld their signatures from the summit communique, even though some contentious issues were omitted in the hope of drawing wider support.
Still, the conference provided Kyiv with a chance to showcase the support from Western allies that it says it needs to keep fighting against a far bigger enemy.
