Russia said on Tuesday it was increasingly clear to the world that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's plan to resolve the nearly two-year war had no hope of succeeding and dismissed meetings dedicated to him as “useless and harmful”.
The fourth in a series of meetings bringing together officials from several dozen countries — but not Russia — was held this week in Davos. A comment on the Russian Foreign Ministry website said the meeting exposed differences among participants and produced no increase in support for the proposals.
“There is a growing understanding that no general, just and sustainable peace can be achieved by focusing on the ultimatum of the 'Zelenskiy formula',” the commentary said.
“All these meetings… including the Davos meeting and those that will follow it, are useless and harmful to the solution of the Ukrainian crisis.”
Russia was not invited to meetings centered on Zelenskiy's peace plan, which calls for the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine, recognition of its 1991 post-Soviet borders and a mechanism to hold Moscow accountable.
Zelenskiy ruled out the possibility of talks with Moscow while Russian troops remain in the country. In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, he called on the West to step up sanctions pressure on Moscow and increase support for Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Ukraine's statehood could suffer an “irreparable blow” if the pattern of war continued, and that Russia would never be forced to abandon the gains made in its military campaign.
Ukraine sought, through meetings and other diplomatic actions, to obtain greater support from the “global south”, as many countries remained on the sidelines of the conflict.
Zelenskiy's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said there were participants at the Davos meeting from 18 Asian countries, 12 African countries and six South American countries.
The Swiss government agreed, after the last meeting on Zelenskiy's peace plan, to host a global peace summit on Ukraine, at Zelenskiy's request.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the Davos talks as “simply talk for the sake of talk,” saying there could be no movement toward a deal without Russia’s participation.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski)
Source: CNN Brasil
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