Russia says Ukraine peace summit achieved ‘zero’ results

Berlin: The Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland over the weekend achieved nothing, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official spokesman said in Moscow on Monday.

A total of 93 states and international organisations participated in the talks near Lucerne.

A large majority backed the final declaration that stressed Ukraine’s sovereignty within internationally recognised borders.

“If one talks about the results of this meeting, then they tend naturally to zero,” Spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.

Moscow was not bothered by the fact that several normally friendly states had voted for the final declaration, he added.

“We will of course take into account the attitude that these countries have taken. It’s important to us. We will continue to explain our arguments to them,” Peskov said. The final declaration noted that the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya, which is occupied by Russia, should be under Ukrainian control.

Russia was not invited to the summit, and China declined to attend.  Major countries that did attend did not sign the final declaration, including Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa. Peskov said that Putin’s peace proposals remained on the table for discussion, according to Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency.  Putin presented his peace plan a day ahead of the summit, demanding that Ukraine surrender the territory held by Russian forces and withdraw its application to join NATO. (IANS)

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