Selenskyj: Moscow wants to prevent peace conference on Bürgenstock
Published: Thursday, Apr 25th 2024, 18:01
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According to the Ukrainian president, Russia wants to prevent the peace conference on the Bürgenstock. There is a plan for this, President Volodymyr Zelensky told foreign diplomats in Kiev, including the chargé d'affaires of the Swiss embassy.
Alleged Russian disruptive activities were not confirmed by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on Thursday at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency; reference was only made to Russian accusations that Switzerland had not invited them to the conference in June.
And the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) was not forthcoming. As a matter of principle, "specific security measures are not explained so as not to jeopardize their effectiveness", it said on request.
Secret service information
In front of Ukrainian diplomats and foreign ambassadors, Selensky referred to intelligence information. There is "concrete data that Russia not only wants to disrupt the peace summit, but also has a concrete plan: how to do this, how to reduce the number of participating countries, how to proceed to ensure that there is no peace for much longer," the president said on Wednesday evening. He did not give any further details.
According to his presidential office, Zelenskyi said that the partners would be informed through diplomatic channels about the Moscow attempts. The President announced that the world's heads of state and government would soon receive invitations to the meeting.
The Ukraine peace conference planned for June 15 and 16 will take place directly after the G7 summit of leading democratic industrialized nations in Italy. The meeting with representatives from up to 80 countries is intended to win over Russia-friendly powers such as India, South Africa and Brazil to the Ukrainian idea of a peace solution. China in particular is being courted to take part.
Incompatible claims
For over two years now, Russian troops have been waging war in Ukraine, using violence against the civilian population and destroying non-military infrastructure. This comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the order to invade the southern neighbouring country on 24 February 2022 on the grounds of demilitarizing and denazifying the country. The Jewish President Selensky was to be removed from power.
Russia has declared all peace talks without its participation to be pointless. Moscow repeatedly asserts its willingness to engage in talks, but the conditions imposed are more likely to result in Ukraine's capitulation. Conversely, Ukraine's goal is to regain all the territories occupied by Russia, which for Putin would amount to a failure of his invasion.
©Keystone/SDA
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