MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. The West has largely ignored the peace initiatives on Ukraine that were put forward by China, South Africa, Brazil and the Arab League, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"Switzerland’s idea to hold a peace conference, with the only goal being to make sure that there are as many participants as possible at the event based on [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s ‘peace formula.’ The formula does not involve compromises or alternatives," he noted at a meeting with foreign ambassadors dedicated to achieving peace in Ukraine.
"It fully ignores the initiatives that China, South Africa, Brazil and the Arab League have presented in good faith. They (the West - TASS) listen to these things but don’t take them into account, and they never will," the top Russian diplomat added.
"It’s strange that Switzerland has volunteered to host the conference, seeing itself as a neutral country," he went on to say. "Switzerland indeed has such a tradition, or, rather, used to have it. Its neutrality, as well as Austria’s neutrality, made it possible for these countries to act as unbiased and neutral hosts," Lavrov said.
"However, Switzerland has now not only joined all sanctions on Russia but in some areas, it acts as the instigator of sanctions," he pointed out. "I met with the Swiss foreign minister in New York a couple of months ago. I told him all this, stressing that we could not consider Switzerland as a neutral platform for international negotiations," he added.
Tricks up their sleeve
"We know that Western strategists seeking to promote [Zelensky’s] formula recommend the Kiev regime resort to various tricks, particularly luring in the countries that are present here through arguments such as the following: you may not like all the ten points of Zelensky’s formula but at least choose one of them, an innocuous one, which concerns food or energy security, and sign that particular point," the Russian foreign minister noted. "Clearly, it’s nothing but a ruse," he added.
According to the top Russian diplomat, Ukrainian negotiators have been told to hold off on putting out any final documents at these meetings. "Hold discussions and, most importantly, take a family photo. A family photo with so many people will in itself encourage others to support the Zelensky 'formula'," Lavrov said.
In conclusion, he emphasized that Russia was always ready for an honest conversation on all those issues.