Russia says will not attend Ukraine peace summit

MOSCOW: Russia said Saturday it would not attend a possible second Ukraine peace summit in November, despite Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky signalling that this time he would invite Moscow’s representatives.

Moscow rejected the idea ahead of Zelensky’s travels to the United States, where he is due to present his peace proposals to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. “The summit will have the same aim: to promote the unviable ‘Zelensky formula’ as the only basis for resolving the conflict, get support for it from the world majority and with that present Russia with an ultimatum on capitulation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement. “We will not take part in such ‘summits’,” she added.

Moscow said it was ready to discuss “serious proposals” that take into account the “situation on the ground made up of geopolitical realities” as described by President Vladimir Putin in June. Putin said in June that Russia will agree to peace talks if Ukraine gives up four of its regions that Moscow claims as its own.