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Russia to ignore potential documents of Burgenstock summit — ambassador

According to Sergey Garmonin, Switzerland's statement that Russia will not be invited to the Burgenstock area "did not come as a surprise"

GENEVA, May 27. /TASS/. The documents that may be adopted as a result of the conference on Ukraine organized by Switzerland on June 15-16 in the Burgenstock area will be of no value for Russia, the country's Ambassador to Switzerland Sergey Garmonin said in an interview with TASS.

"Any documents based on the results of the Burgenstock meeting will be of no value to us and will be left without attention from the Russian side. I would like to emphasize once again: without Russia's participation, any talks on the settlement in Ukraine are meaningless and prospectless," he said.

The ambassador explained that documents and statements from any events without Russia's participation will be considered in Moscow as "negligible and of no added value for the start of real peace talks." "A real negotiation process will start with a clean slate and without looking back at the event of the Swiss authorities," Garmonin said.

According to him, Switzerland's statement that Russia will not be invited to the Burgenstock area "did not come as a surprise." "The Russian side is taking it calmly. We will not ask to come to this 'peace conference' if we are not wanted there," the diplomat said. "As Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out on May 17, speaking about the upcoming Burgenstock event, ‘They don't invite us. Besides, they say they don't see us there. <...> Well, they won’t.'"

Earlier, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said that Bern had invited more than 160 delegations, including those from the G7, the G20 and the BRICS countries, to the conference on Ukraine, which will be held on June 15-16 in the Burgenstock resort. According to the country's authorities, Russia is not among the invitees "at this stage."

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, speaking via videoconference on the G20 summit in mid-November 2022, presented a so-called ten-point peace plan that does not take into account Moscow's position. In particular, it calls for the complete withdrawal of Russian forces from the 1991 borders and the return of control over the "exclusive economic zone" in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to Ukraine.