President of the country Vladimir Zelensky said that Kiev does not positively perceive Beijing's refusal to participate in the Swiss summit
MOSCOW, June 2. /tass/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has effectively ruled out any peace conferences, except for the so-called Swiss peace summit. This is reported by the RBC Ukraine agency.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine "as a victim of the conflict should offer peaceful initiatives." "With all due respect to any country, but neither China, nor Brazil, nor anyone is fully aware of what is happening on the territory of our state. <...> No one has the right to tell us how this war should end," Zelensky was quoted by the agency as answering questions from journalists at the Shangri-La Dialogue International Security Forum in Singapore.
Zelensky also said that "Ukraine does not positively perceive China's refusal to participate in the Swiss summit," and noted that he considers Beijing's support for Moscow to be a strategic mistake. In addition, Zelensky directly accused China of trying to disrupt the summit. "The United States has contacts with some states and encourages them to participate in the peace summit. Unfortunately, China, on the contrary, is working to ensure that countries do not come to the summit," he said. At the same time, according to Zelensky, it is not only China that is doing this - "some states have begun to help Russia in the diplomatic disruption of the summit."
"I emphasize once again: we are ready to hear the opinions of each of the countries, but on our platform, organized by us together with the Swiss side," Zelensky added.
About the conference in Switzerland
The Swiss authorities expect to hold a conference on Ukraine on June 15-16 at the resort of Burgenstock. The Federal Department (Ministry) of Foreign Affairs had previously informed that Bern had invited more than 160 delegations to it, including from the countries of the Group of Seven, the Group of Twenty and the BRICS. According to the Swiss authorities, the Russian Federation is not among those invited to this meeting.
Earlier, Zelensky admitted that Ukraine is trying to gather as many countries as possible, regardless of their interests, in the hope that this will allow Russia to impose the decisions it has made. He confirmed that only three of the 10 points of the "peace formula" promoted by Kiev will be submitted to the meeting in June, explaining that "people cannot deny them." These are food and nuclear security, as well as humanitarian issues, including the exchange of prisoners of war. Zelensky expects that such a plan, supported by dozens of states, should be handed over to representatives of the Russian Federation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would not ask to participate in the conference if the country did not want to be there. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, holding such a forum in Switzerland is a "path to nowhere", since Moscow does not see the desire of the West to conduct business honestly. At the same time, Russia has repeatedly stressed that Moscow has never refused a peaceful settlement of the conflict with Kiev.
The Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, in an interview with Newsweek magazine, noted that the Swiss conference on Ukraine is "a profanity that cannot replace serious diplomatic and legal work," moreover, "the Swiss meeting has no right to confirm Zelensky's legitimacy, it simply does not have the authority." Zelensky's five-year term as president expired on May 21.
