Russia has stated that it was becoming increasingly clear to the world that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s plan to end the nearly two-year war had little chance of success, dismissing meetings devoted to it as “pointless and harmful”.
This week, Davos hosted the fourth in a series of discussions bringing together officials from several dozen countries but excluding Russia.
According to a post on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website, the meeting revealed disagreements among participants but resulted in no increase in support for the suggestions.
Russia is expressly not invited to the meetings centered on Zelenskiy’s peace plan, which demands for the departure of all Russian forces from Ukraine, acknowledgment of its 1991 post-Soviet borders, and a mechanism to hold Moscow accountable.
Zelenskiy has rejected negotiations with Moscow while Russian forces stay in the Ukraine. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, he encouraged the West to strengthen sanctions against Moscow and increase support for Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s statehood could suffer an “irreparable blow” if the pattern of the war continued, and that Russia would never be forced to abandon the gains it had made in its military campaign.
Ukraine has sought through the meetings and other diplomatic moves to garner greater support from the “global south,” with many countries having stayed on the sidelines in 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 latest gathering on Zelenskiy’s peace plan to host a global peace summit on Ukraine at Zelenskiy’s request.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the Davos talks as “simply talking for the sake of talking,” saying there could be no moves towards a settlement without Russia’s participation.
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