‘Pointless’ for Swiss to host Ukraine peace summit, says Russia
By showing solidarity with Ukraine, Switzerland had "lost its role as an impartial international mediator", said Sergei Garmonin.
Keystone / Peter Schneider
Switzerland hosting peace talks on Ukraine would be "pointless", Russia's ambassador in Bern said in an interview published on Sunday.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Reuters
Русский
ru
Москва не видит смысла в мирном саммите по Украине в Швейцарии
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Ukraine’s President, Volodymr Zelensky, asked Switzerland to organise a peace summit.
Neutral Switzerland has acted as a broker to resolve international conflicts in the past. Russian ambassador Sergei Garmonin, however, told the newspaper SonntagsZeitung that a Ukraine peace summit without Moscow’s participation would be “doomed to fail”.
Garmonin criticized Switzerland, saying the country consistently supported the “anti-Russian line of the collective West,” and by showing solidarity with Ukraine it had “lost its role as an impartial international mediator.” Swiss mediation is therefore “out of the question”, he said.
Zelenskiy’s ten-point peace plan was not a basis for entering into dialogue because it contained a series of ultimatums against Russia, Garmonin said. “You can’t talk to Russia in the language of ultimatums,” he said.
He said Russian demands to be taken into account included that “Ukraine must become a neutral, non-aligned country without nuclear weapons that respects the human rights and freedoms of all citizens and national groups on its territory.”
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. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Culture
Wealth is not all: how gentrification in Zurich has led to housing shortage
Swisscom receives greenlight for acquisition of Vodafone Italia
This content was published on
The takeover of Vodafone Italia by Swisscom is nearing completion. All relevant authorities have now approved the €8 billion (CHF7.45 billion) deal.
Novo Nordisk stock market plunge drags down Swiss device maker Ypsomed
This content was published on
The Danish pharmaceutical giant, Novo Nordisk, faced setbacks on Friday that weighed on the share price of Swiss injection device manufacturer Ypsomed.
Swiss press react to EU deal with mix of euphoria and scepticism
This content was published on
Swiss media reaction to the agreement between Switzerland and the EU varies widely. Some are celebrating, while others worry about what is to come.
Swiss Solidarity donations to tackle child abuse top CHF4 million
This content was published on
Swiss Solidarity, the humanitarian arm of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), has raised over CHF4 million ($4.3 million) to tackle child abuse.
EU Commission president says Swiss-EU deal is ‘historic’ agreement
This content was published on
At a joint media conference with Swiss President Viola Amherd in Bern, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of a "day of joy".
Switzerland and EU reach deal on future bilateral relations
This content was published on
Switzerland and the European Union have announced a political agreement to update their trading relationship after almost a decade of difficult talks.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.