Moscow said on Sunday that Western efforts to rally the Global South behind Kiev were a failed attempt by the United States, China, and India to participate in discussions over the weekend in Saudi Arabia to create principles for a peaceful resolution to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The two-day conference was attended by senior officials from about 40 nations as part of an effort by Ukraine to win over nations that have been reluctant to endorse one side in the war in addition to its main Western backers. Not invited was Russia.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the state news agency TASS calling the meeting “a reflection of the West’s attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts to mobilise the international community, and more precisely, the Global South, even if not entirely, in support of the so-called Zelenskyi formula, which is doomed and untenable from the outset”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he hoped the initiative would lead to a peace summit of leaders from around the world this autumn to endorse principles for a settlement based on his own 10-point formula.

At its heart is a withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.