Kremlin says Davos talks on Ukraine will achieve nothing as Russia is not there

FILE PHOTO: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a news conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin after a meeting of the State Council on youth policy in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2022. Sputnik/Valeriy Sharifulin/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Monday said that talks in Davos on Ukraine’s peace proposals would achieve nothing as Russia was not participating in the discussions.

President Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest confrontation between the West and Moscow since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French President Emmanuel Macron and key Middle East leaders are slated to attend this week’s World Economic Forum, putting talks to end wars in Gaza and Ukraine at the top of the agenda for the global elite.

“This is simply talking for the sake of talking,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the discussions on Ukraine at Davos.

“This process cannot be aimed at achieving any specific results for the obvious reason – we are not participating. Without our participation, any discussions are devoid of any prospect of any results.”

Ukraine says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from its territory and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has decreed that any talks with Russia are illegal.

Russia, which controls a little under a fifth of Ukrainian territory, has dismissed Zelenskiy’s peace plan, known as his “peace formula”, as absurd as it aims to find peace without Russian participation.

Zelenskiy’s 10-point peace plan calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities and the restoration of Ukraine’s state borders with Russia.

Putin casts the war in Ukraine as part of a much broader global struggle with the West – which he says aims to split Russia apart and steal its resources. The West denies it wants to destroy Russia.

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)