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Russia: West’s efforts to mobilize Global South behind Ukraine’s ‘peace formula’ doomed to failure

Sunday, 06 August 2023 10:13 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 07 August 2023 2:15 AM ]

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov (file photo)

Russia has strongly criticized the efforts made by the West to mobilize the international community behind a peace plan proposed by Ukraine, saying such efforts are doomed to failure.

The remark was made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Sunday in reference to a recent meeting held in Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah to purportedly find a peaceful settlement for the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The two-day Jeddah meeting, which ended on Sunday, was attended by more than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but Russia was not invited.

Ukraine and its Western allies claimed the talks represented an attempt to secure broad international support for principles that Kiev wants to be the basis for peace.

Prior to the meeting, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had dismissed the talks as a means of forging an anti-Russia coalition.

"The meeting initiated by the Kiev regime and its Western curators to promote [Ukrainian President] Volodymyr Zelensky's [peace] formula is a sham," Zakharova added.

Russia: Upcoming Ukraine-West summit in Saudi Arabia a 'sham'

Russia has said that a planned meeting on Ukraine scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia this week is intended to forge an anti-Russian coalition.

Speaking after the meeting ended on Sunday, Ryabkov repeated Moscow's rebuff, saying the meeting was "a reflection of the West's ... doomed efforts" to mobilize the Global South behind Zelensky's plan.

"[The meeting in Jeddah is] a reflection of the West's attempt to continue futile, doomed-to-failure efforts to mobilize the international community, or more precisely, the Global South, even if not entirely, to support the so-called Zelensky formula, which is doomed and unworkable from the outset," Ryabkov told Russia's TASS news agency.

At the same time, the West is thus trying "in its usual sly and deceitful manner" to induce the countries of the Global South to support elements of Zelensky's peace formula, the Russian deputy foreign minister added.

The Ukrainian president has, among other things, preconditioned any potential resolution of the conflict on the return of several Ukrainian regions that have voted in separate referendums in favor of joining Russia. Moscow has dismissed that condition, calling those regions parts of its own territory.