Moscow believes foreign officials don’t want to waste time on an “absurd activity”
Argentinian President Javier Milei has decided to skip the upcoming gathering in Switzerland next week to attend national holidays at home, becoming the latest foreign leader to snub the so-called “Ukraine peace summit.”
President Milei will shorten his originally planned ten-day trip to Europe and split it in two segments, traveling back to Argentina on June 15-22, Bloomberg and La Nacion reported on Thursday citing people with knowledge of his schedule.
The abrupt change of plans means the Argentine leader will skip the Kiev-sponsored event scheduled for June 15-16 at the Burgenstock Resort in Switzerland, as well as most of the G7 summit events in Italy.
Bloomberg said that the move was partly prompted by the ongoing negotiations over Milei’s controversial reform package, while La Nacion wrote that he did not want to skip his first Flag Day as president, as well as another national holiday.
The Swiss-hosted gathering has been touted by Kiev and its Western backers as the most realistic way of resolving the conflict with Russia. Moscow, however, has been deliberately excluded from the gathering, and has rejected it as a “scam” intended to trick neutral nations into supporting Vladimir Zelensky and the Ukrainian government.
Despite inviting some 160 states to the summit, Kiev has largely failed in his attempts to drum up support in the Global South. Countries such as China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, have already said they will not attend the conference, while India is reportedly among those considering sending only a low-level delegation. Pakistan is also reportedly expected to skip the meeting to maintain “neutrality.”
Kiev is seeking continued military assistance for its armed forces, and has hit out at nations that have chosen to shun the summit, with Zelensky recently accusing China of serving as a Russian tool – and even criticizing US President Joe Biden who decided to send Vice President Kamala Harris instead of attending himself.
Zelensky’s presidential term expired last month after his government declined to hold a new election due to martial law. Moscow perceives Zelensky to be holding onto power illegitimately under Ukrainian law, and he was described by the Russian Foreign Ministry last week as “the ringleader of the Kiev regime.”
“Countries don’t want to take part in an event without a goal. This is an absurd activity, just some idle way to spend time,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week, describing any reluctance or refusal to attend as “absolutely understandable.”
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