UNITED NATIONS, July 18. /TASS/. The second ‘peace summit’ on Ukraine offers such approaches that are inadmissible for Russia and many other countries, which show a sincere interest in resolving the conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"When speaking about what [participants in the second round of the Ukraine ‘peace conference’] will be doing there, everyone has in one way or another articulated the approaches which are unilateral and absolutely unacceptable for us and many other [countries] that are sincerely interested in peace," the top Russian diplomat said at a press conference in the United Nations after taking part in its Security Council meetings as chairman.
According to Lavrov, Russia has already repeatedly spoken about not being invited to Switzerland for the first "peace summit".
"The second summit is an organic continuation of the process that began almost a year ago, when a small group of countries gathered in Copenhagen [for a conference]," the minister said. "Then, several more meetings, called the ‘Copenhagen format,’ followed."
The minister emphasized that each time, Western counterparts and the Kiev regime "tried by hook or by crook, with various tricks and promises to lure as many countries as possible into taking part in these events."
Switzerland hosted a conference on Ukraine in the resort town of Burgenstock on June 15-16 at the request of Kiev. Some countries did not put their signatures under the final communique, including Armenia, Brazil, India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Russia was not invited to Burgenstock. Delegations of most UN members did not attend it as well. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the conference had turned out to be a total fiasco, as such gatherings could not serve as the foundation for lasting peace.