Parties searching for way ahead in entrenched crisis

The West should stop supplying Kyiv with weapons if they want talks on Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday in response to the statement made by Switzerland's top diplomat that Russia should be included in peace discussions.

Addressing a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier that day, Swiss Federal Councilor for Foreign Affairs Ignazio Cassis said efforts are being made to bring Russia into peace discussions on Ukraine mediated by other countries, and stressed that a peace conference could not be held without Russia's participation.

"We should find a way to bring Russia into peace discussions. There will be no peace if Russia cannot have its say," he said.

Cassis said delegates from 83 countries are taking part in a meeting of national security advisers on the Ukrainian "peace formula", which is being held in Davos at the initiative of Switzerland and Ukraine on Sunday.

The meetings were co-chaired by Cassis and Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak.

"The purpose is to prepare so that we are ready and ripe to launch a process with Russia — when the time comes," Cassis said.

Yermak said the talks were open, constructive and detailed on the key principles of reaching a "comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine".

Yermak added that Ukraine was looking at hosting summits with African countries and with South American nations to explain its position more broadly.

In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Izvestia newspaper that the prerequisites of solving the "dead end" are to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, stop imposing anti-Russian sanctions, and stop making Russophobic statements.

"If this rhetoric is geared toward drawing Russia into some sort of a psychedelic process on the West's terms to influence Russia's principled approaches, we won't be lured into this trap," she said.

Addressing the G20 summit in November 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had a "plan to achieve peace" consisting of 10 points. Among them are nuclear, food and energy security, and an "all-for-all" exchange of "detainees", as well as the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity. The plan however totally ignores Moscow's position.

Zelensky was due to visit Switzerland on Monday.

Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Zelensky's statements on a peaceful settlement were out of touch with reality. Moscow sees no progress in the settlement process around Ukraine and that is why it is continuing its military operation.

On the front line, Russia launched dozens of attacks over Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Saturday, as Kyiv pushes for more air defense.

Ukraine's military spy chief Kyrylo Budanov said Kyiv's attacks against Crimea would intensify, adding that Moscow's economy was proving surprisingly resilient despite sanctions.

He acknowledged that the front lines were largely frozen in Ukraine, and the resilience of the Russian economy surprised him as "the current Western sanctions were not enough to force the Kremlin to change its behavior".