“From our point of view, this conference is absolutely useless for finding a solution to the conflict in Ukraine,” said Kremlin (presidential) spokesman Dmitri Peskov in an interview with Russian public broadcaster RT.
“It is indeed absurd to meet and seriously discuss these issues without the participation of our country,” he said, quoted by the French news agency AFP.
Peskov also said that there are no plans to hold a conference on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia, in which Russia would also take part, as reported by the Bloomberg news agency.
“There are no talks [about this] at the moment,” Peskov said in the RT interview, according to Russia’s official TASS news agency.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 90 countries, including Portugal, have already confirmed their participation in the international conference to be held in Lucerne (central Switzerland) on June 15 and 16.
Zelensky warned that the absence of US counterpart Joe Biden from the conference in Switzerland would be like applauding Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“There is a peace summit organized around the world and I believe that President Biden must be there,” Zelensky said in Brussels.
Zelensky said that other countries are evaluating the reaction of the United States to the peace initiative, so a possible absence of Biden would have a positive effect on Moscow.
The Ukrainian President traveled to Brussels this morning, from where he will fly to Lisbon for a visit of a few hours.
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