No peace summit with Russia's participation is being prepared at the moment, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda radio on Aug. 1.
As Russia's war stretches into its third year, Kyiv has said it aims to invite a Russian representative to a planned second summit. No official invitation has been announced so far.
Russia is open to peace talks to end the war in Ukraine but does not trust the Ukrainian authorities, Peskov claimed.
These misgivings are echoed in Kyiv, as Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said his country is ready for talks but does not see Russia ready to negotiate in good faith.
Peskov also claimed that calls for peace talks are also not backed by concrete details. The spokesperson did not specify what exactly he was referring to.
On June 15, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the action plan agreed upon at the first peace summit would be communicated to Russian representatives so that the second summit could "mark the end of the war."
Ukraine reportedly plans to organize the second peace summit with Russia participating before the U.S. presidential election in November 2024.
Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak told Bloomberg that the second global peace summit for Ukraine will be held in a country from the so-called Global South, probably in the Middle East, to portray the "world's unity" amid Russia's ongoing invasion.
Speaking to French journalists on July 30, Zelensky said that Russia Russia must be present at a second peace summit in order to end the war
The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed Ukraine's peace efforts and its 10-point formula as irrelevant, calling it an "ultimatum."
Speaking a day ahead of the Switzerland summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that as a condition for peace negotiations, Ukraine must fully withdraw from four partially occupied oblasts that Moscow illegally annexed in 2022. Kyiv rejected this demand.
Kateryna Hodunova
(Updated: )
