Russia has announced its refusal to participate in Ukraine’s potential peace summit, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claiming on 21 September, “We will not take part in such ‘summits’,” according to AFP. She stated the summit’s aim is promoting of the allegedly “unviable ‘Zelenskyy formula’ as the only basis for resolving the conflict,” and presenting Russia with “an ultimatum on capitulation.” This comes as Russia’s only claimed way to end its war is Ukraine’s de facto capitulation.
Moscow rejected participation in Ukraine’s Peace Summit ahead of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s visit to the United States, where he is set to present his “victory plan” to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump. Ukrainian officials proposed Russia’s involvement shortly after the last summit this summer. Russia’s war against Ukraine has now surpassed 10 years, with the full-scale invasion ongoing for 2.5 years.
Reuters reported that Zakharova dismissed the peace process as “another manifestation of fraud by the Anglo-Saxons and their Ukrainian puppets.” She questioned Ukraine’s right for achieving peace by the means of legitimate self-defense, claiming that Ukraine and its Western backers “not think about peace,” citing Ukraine’s incursion into southern Russia’s Kursk Oblast and Zelenskyy’s appeals for long-range Western weaponry.
Moscow insisted it was ready to discuss “serious proposals” that take into account what Russia believes to be the “situation on the ground made up of geopolitical realities,” as described by President Vladimir Putin in June. Putin had previously stated that Russia would agree to peace talks if Ukraine ceded four of its regions that Moscow claims as its own.
The announcement comes in response to Zelenskyy’s indication that he would invite Russian representatives to a possible second peace summit in November. The previous summit, held in Switzerland in June, was attended by delegations from over 90 countries but did not include Russia.
In contrast, Putin’s conditions for a “ceasefire” with Ukraine, set on the eve of the June summit, included demands for Kyiv to abandon the four Ukrainian regions Moscow claims and reject its NATO aspirations. Russia has since stated it cannot engage in talks while Ukrainian troops are in its Kursk Oblast.
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