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No official Swiss response to Putin’s criticism of Ukraine peace summit 

Putin
KEYSTONE/Sputnik

The Swiss foreign ministry will not defend itself against Russian President Vladimir Putin's criticism of the Ukraine peace summit scheduled in June.

The Swiss foreign ministry is not reacting to Putin’s criticism of the Ukraine peace summit planned to be held on June 15-16 in Bürgenstock (Canton Nidwalden), it told the Keystone-ATS news agency on Friday. The ministry does not comment on remarks made by foreign heads of state, it explained in a statement. 

In a speech on Thursday, Putin declared that Russia was not invited, and also stated that nothing could be decided without Moscow. He suggested that because there would be no Russian delegation at the conference, it could be claimed that Russia is refusing to negotiate. “It’s a real cabinet of curiosities,” commented Putin. 

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The Ukraine peace conference will take place at the Bürgenstock hotel above Lake Lucerne in central Switzerland. The luxury resort has hosted previous peace talks on Sudan (2002) and Cyprus (2004),

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According to the Swiss foreign ministry, invitations to the June peace summit will be sent to around 120 countries in the coming weeks. Ignazio Cassis, head of the Swiss foreign ministry, had already stated on Wednesday that Russia would not be taking part. But it is clear that a genuine peace process can only take place with the participation of both parties, wrote the foreign ministry on Friday. 

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was the first person with whom Cassis discussed the practical details of a conference, according to the Swiss foreign ministry. On this occasion, Cassis stated that Switzerland wished to discuss all points of view openly and to examine all possible peace plans. 

Adapted from French by DeepL/kc/ac 

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. 

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