Russia says Switzerland 'far' from neutrality, can't lead peace process with Ukraine

GENEVA

Russia’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva on Tuesday accused Switzerland of losing its "neutrality," saying Moscow is not against peace negotiations with Ukraine but would not take part in something led by the traditionally neutral Swiss.

Russia does "not see any possibility" that Switzerland would take the lead and organize a peace summit, Gennady Gatilov told a meeting in Geneva with reporters.

Gatilov claimed "Switzerland is quite far away from neutrality" as it not only adopted the EU sanctions on Russia but also froze 7.7 billion Swiss francs (over $8.52 billion) in financial assets belonging to Russians, calling it "stolen money."

"We are not against (peace) negotiations," he said, explaining that the Swiss lack of neutrality is the reason why Russia would not take part in talks in Switzerland.

Switzerland earlier this year said it could host a peace summit for the Russia-Ukraine war possibly in Geneva and announced plans to invite members of the BRICS group – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates – and countries from the Global South.

According to Gatilov, inviting the Global South has one purpose, namely to get these countries' support behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's peace formula, which is "unacceptable" for the Kremlin.

This week, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said that details of the proposed Ukraine peace conference, which was planned to take place in the summer, are still unclear.

"Between now and mid-April, we will decide what we are going to do," Cassis told Swiss public radio RTS.

"Do we go ahead with the summit? Do we postpone it? Do we hold two of them, so that both lines of reasoning can move forward at the same time? We are currently in this intermediate or exploratory phase."