BURGENSTOCK /Switzerland/, June 15. /TASS/. The Washington administration claims that Russia’s new proposals seeking to resolve the conflict in Ukraine imply Kiev’s surrender, US Vice President Kamala Harris said at the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland.
Harris said that on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin "put forward a proposal." "But we must speak truth: He is not calling for negotiations, he is calling for surrender," Harris said.
"President Joe Biden and I will continue to support Ukraine and continue to impose costs on Russia. And we will continue to work toward a just and lasting peace, based on the principles of the United Nations Charter and the will of the people of Ukraine," the vice president said.
According to Harris, President Zelensky and the United States share their vision for the end of this conflict. She added that nothing about the end of this conflict should be decided without Ukraine.
"America stands with Ukraine not out of charity but because it is in our strategic interest," she stressed.
On Friday, Putin put forward new peace proposals seeking to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. The proposals envisage that the status of Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions as Russian regions will be recognized, Ukraine’s non-aligned and non-nuclear status will be enshrined as well as its demilitarization and denazification, and the sanctions on Russia will be lifted. However, Ukraine rejected this initiative.
Conference in Burgenstock
Switzerland is hosting a conference on Ukraine in the resort town of Burgenstock on June 15-16. Bern has invited more than 160 delegations, including from the G7, G20 and BRICS countries. However, the organizers announced ahead of the gathering that the delegations were not sent by all of them, as 91 countries, the Serbian province of Kosovo and eight international organizations are attending. Fifty-five countries have fielded their heads of state or government to take part. The collective West’s countries outnumber the others in Burgenstock, which leaves little hope for a balanced discussion.
Russia is not among those invited to this gathering. Most countries that are UN members have not sent their delegations. For example, China is not on the list of participants, whereas Brazil attends it as an observer. Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Egypt, Iran, China, Cuba, Egypt, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Syria, Ethiopia, and many other countries have not come.
The conference will address three issues, namely humanitarian issues, nuclear and food security. On June 14, the Swiss government specified that the countries can share their views on the prisoner exchange, the release of civilians and the repatriation of children. A joint statement is expected at the end of the forum.
On June 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the Foreign Ministry’s senior staff that it was impossible to find a peace solution to the Ukraine conflict without Russia’s participation and a frank dialogue. According to the Russian leader, it is obvious even now that the "truly fundamental issues" that underlie the current crisis of international security and stability as well as the real roots of the Ukraine conflict "are not going to be discussed in Switzerland, despite all the attempts to make the agenda of the conference more or less decent.".