Peace talks without Moscow is absurd

The Kremlin said yesterday that the idea of holding peace talks without Russia was ridiculous, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he hoped to hold a spring summit in Switzerland to discuss his peace vision with Kyiv's allies.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We have repeatedly said that this is a strange format, to say the least, because certain peace plans are being implemented without the participation of Russia, which in itself is frivolous and even laughable."

Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Sunday, however, that a blueprint from the summit in Switzerland could be handed to Russia at a later date.

"There can be a situation in which we together invite representatives of the Russian Federation, where they will be presented with the plan in case whoever is representing the aggressor country at that time will want to genuinely end this war and return to a just peace," Yermak said.

Meanwhile, Kremlin shrugged off the latest round of Western sanctions against Moscow, saying that Russia's economy had adapted to restrictions and that those imposing sanctions were hurting themselves with any new measures.

"Nothing fundamentally new has been announced, and it is unlikely that anything fundamentally new can be thought up by those who impose these sanctions without harming their own economy," Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said sanctions were causing indirect harm to the European economy and the interests of US companies.

The United States on Friday imposed extensive sanctions against Russia, targeting more than 500 people and entities to mark the second anniversary of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine and retaliate for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.