MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis failed to explain the goal of holding Copenhagen-platform meetings on Ukraine without Moscow’s participation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"I had a lot of meetings on the sidelines of events held at the UN headquarters. One of the meetings was with Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis; we met at his request. He said that Switzerland would like to help search [for a compromise in the situation surrounding Ukraine]. He was somewhat proud, saying: 'You have probably taken note that we held a Copenhagen-platform meeting on Ukraine in Davos and I said later at a press conference that there was a need to search for a solution together with Russia,'" Lavrov noted at a roundtable discussion with the heads of foreign diplomatic missions concerning the situation surrounding Ukraine.

"I asked him, 'Since it’s clear to you, then why do you hold all these events?' There was no answer but it’s a fact that it is a propaganda stunt that the West places much importance on," the top Russian diplomat added.

According to Lavrov, Western countries will now probably "once again try to recruit as many participants as possible, by hook or by crook, in order to hold another meeting or 'a peace summit' to approve ‘Zelensky’s formula’ at this peace summit, and then [disingenuously] claim that this represents the international community’s opinion."