Sharjah 24 – AFP: Russia's foreign ministry on Wednesday criticised plans to hold a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland as a futile initiative of the US Democratic Party ahead of this year's US presidential election.

"American Democrats, who need photos and videos of events that supposedly indicate their project 'Ukraine' is still afloat, are behind this," the state-run TASS news agency quoted foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.