BRICS leaders not to attend conference on Ukraine in Switzerland

Leaders of those BRICS nations who were invited to the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland will not attend it, according to the Swiss authorities.

Brazil, India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and South Africa will not be represented by their leaders although they will send delegated to the conference. Other BRICS nations either were not invited or turned down the invitation, TASS reports.

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said earlier that it had invited more than 160 delegations, including from the Group of Seven, Group of Twenty, and BRICS nations, to the conference on Ukraine in Burgenstock on June 15 and 16. Russia, according to Switzerland’s authorities, is not among those invited.

Later, the Swiss government said that eight organizations and 92 countries will take part in the conference and 57 of them will be represented by heads of state or government.

According to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a peace conference needs to be recognized by both Kiev and Moscow to be able to lead to peace in Ukraine

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed earlier that Russia would not be begging to be invited to the conference if it is unwelcome. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, this conference is a "road to nowhere." Moscow, however, has repeatedly emphasized that it doesn’t reject the idea of a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Ukraine.