MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. An online conference to continue discussions on peace settlement in Ukraine within the framework of the Swiss format will take place in August, chief of the Ukrainian presidential office Andrey Yermak said.
"The first thematic conference in continuation of the peace summit will take place in an online format as early as in August," the official wrote on Telegram.
In his words, the event will be devoted to energy security issues.
Yermak claimed that he had held a working group meeting, bringing together around 40 partner countries and organizations, earlier on Tuesday.
The first conference on Ukraine was held on June 15-16 in the Swiss city of Burgenstock at the initiative of the Ukrainian side. The final communique of the summit was not signed by Armenia, Bahrain, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Mexico, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and the Vatican. Russia was not invited to Burgenstock. Delegations of most UN member states were also absent. According to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the conference was a complete fiasco, and such events cannot serve as a basis for sustainable peace.
On June 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin named the conditions for the settlement in Ukraine, which include the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbass and Novorossiya, Kiev’s rejection of plans to join NATO, withdrawal of all Western anti-Russian sanctions and the establishment of Ukraine’s non-aligned and non-nuclear status. Putin pointed out that, if Ukraine rejects these conditions - which it did - then the conditions may get worse in the future.
After the Kiev government’s large-scale attack on the Kursk Region, which began on August 6, the Russian leader said talks with a government that attacks civilians make no sense.