Russian partners within the BRICS bloc understand the futility of discussing the settlement of the Ukraine conflict without Moscow, Pavel Knyazev, an ambassador at large of the Russian Foreign Ministry and sous-sherpa of Russia in BRICS, told Sputnik on Friday.
"About this initiative – this is, as you know, an attempt to promote the ultimatums that Zelensky is proposing and the line that his patrons in the West are promoting. Everyone, including our BRICS partners, understands the futility of such discussions of the situation in Ukraine or a settlement between Ukraine and Russia without Russia," Knyazev said, commenting on the meeting in Copenhagen.
Last week, German media stated that an international meeting on Ukraine was conducted in the Danish capital of Copenhagen with diplomats from Western nations as well as representatives of Brazil, India, China, and South Africa.
The discussion was said to have been held "in the strictest secrecy." The news outlet stated that these BRICS nations, who had until to this point maintained their neutral stance on the Ukraine crisis, were the target of the West's attempt to win their support.
The president's office of South Africa denied that its delegation had attended the alleged meeting.
On Sunday, Andrey Ermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, stated that national security and political advisers from Brazil, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Turkey and Japan attended a meeting in Copenhagen to discuss the settlement of the Ukraine conflict, adding that the sides agreed to continue consultations in this format.
Ermak also said that Ukraine wanted to host a so-called global peace summit for the discussion of Kiev's peace plan.