No point in Ukraine peace talks in Switzerland: Russia

ZURICH: Russia said on Thursday it saw no point in a conference being planned by Switzerland in mid-June to discuss how to end the Ukraine conflict and to which Moscow is not currently invited.

The Swiss government said on Thursday that “at this stage” Russia is not among the dozens of countries invited, adding that while it was open to including Russia, Moscow had repeatedly underlined it had no interest.

Switzerland in January said it would host the summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Ukraine’s government has questioned the utility of Russian participation in the talks due to be held from June 15-16 near the Swiss city of Lucerne.

“We know that it doesn’t make sense to have Russia at the table if you cannot ensure that they act in good faith,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine published this week.