Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has mocked a scheduled spherical of Ukraine peace talks in Switzerland, warning that Moscow is not going to settle for any enforced plans that ignore its pursuits.
Switzerland’s authorities mentioned on Wednesday that it’s going to host a high-level worldwide convention in June to assist chart a path towards peace in Ukraine after greater than two years of preventing, and expressed hope that Russia would possibly be a part of within the peace course of sometime.
Putin claimed that Russia hadn’t been invited to hitch June’s talks, whereas pointing at Swiss recognition {that a} peace course of can’t occur with out Russia.
“They aren’t inviting us there,” Putin mentioned.
“Furthermore, they assume there may be nothing for us to do there, however on the similar time they are saying that’s it’s unattainable to resolve something with out us. It will have been humorous if it weren’t so unhappy.”
Russia has dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace components requiring Moscow to tug again its troops, pay compensation to Ukraine and face a global tribunal for its motion.
Talking throughout Thursday’s assembly with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow, Putin mentioned that Russia is open for negotiations, however won’t ever settle for “any schemes that don’t have anything to do with actuality”.
Putin has repeatedly mentioned that he despatched troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to guard Russian pursuits and stop Ukraine from posing a significant safety risk to Russia by becoming a member of Nato.
Kyiv and its allies have denounced Russia’s navy marketing campaign as an unprovoked act of aggression.
Putin has claimed that Russian forces have the higher hand after the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive final yr, arguing that Ukraine and the West will “eventually” have to just accept a settlement on Moscow’s phrases.
Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov warned final week that potential negotiations to finish the preventing in Ukraine could possibly be profitable provided that they take Moscow’s pursuits under consideration, dismissing a deliberate spherical of peace talks as a Western ruse to rally broader worldwide help for Kyiv.
