BÜRGENSTOCK, Switzerland — Kyiv will not engage in direct negotiations with Russia, but is working to build a coalition of intermediaries to help end the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said at this weekend’s peace summit, to which Russia was not invited.
“There is no Russia here because if Russia would be interested in peace, there would be no war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during the first plenary meeting at the summit on Saturday.
There is hope in Kyiv that a broad coalition, including the involvement of some Russia-leaning countries, can push Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace formula, and at some point will be able to get Moscow to end the war.
“This is an introductory summit aimed at gathering countries that are ready to act to bring a just peace to Ukraine,” Igor Zhovkva, deputy head of the presidential office of Ukraine, told journalists at the summit on Saturday.
According to Zhovkva, Ukrainians want to involve countries that maintain relations with Russia, as they could have influence on Moscow in promoting Ukraine’s peace proposals.
“During this first meeting, we decided to focus on three elements of 10 — nuclear safety, food security, and return of our people held in Russia — as today most of the world community are united around those three,” Zhovkva said. “But I hope that other points of the peace formula will be agreed as well in the final declaration of the summit.”
Even though China, the main country that has some influence on Russia, did not attend the summit, Zhovkva said, Ukraine still hopes to bring Beijing on board at some point.
“Other countries also have tools of influence on Russia that they can use,” he said. “The world community’s goal will be to deprive Russia of the tools of aggression in all spheres. After all, Russia’s aggression continues not only on the battlefield,” Zhovkva said, claiming he can’t give details as it would help Russia to obstruct Ukraine’s plans.
But the participants agreed during the first plenary session on Saturday that at some point Russia must be involved in the peace process. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday issued a new set of demands in order to end the conflict, which Moscow started with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv rejected Putin’s proposals, which included an ultimatum to Ukraine to give up four regions.
“We have a Ukrainian peace plan in front of us, and Russia has recently shared some terms. Each side sees the other party’s steps as the extension of the war effort,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said.
He also cited the Black Sea Grain Initiative as a diplomatic success, as it included Russia and Ukraine, and provided predictability to both countries. “There’s much to be learned from this example,” Fidan said.
Although Moscow complained that the grain deal was unfair and eventually withdrew from it in the summer of 2023, Ukraine later reestablished the Black Sea export route on its own, methodically destroying the Russian fleet that used to block Ukrainian ports.
Kyiv hopes Saudi Arabia will host the next peace summit for Ukraine, as it is well-placed to help involve Biejing and has good relations with Russia. The date and conditions of that conference are not fixed yet.
Zelenskyy made a last-minute unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia ahead of the Switzerland summit and persuaded the Saudis, who were not planning to come to Bürgenstock, to change their minds, Zhovkva said.
“We hope this summit provides us the basis of a political track of resolving the conflict. We demonstrated our readiness to mitigate it the closer to a solution,” Prince Faisal bin Al Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, said during the meeting on Saturday. “But the path to peace will require some difficult compromises as part of a road map,” he said.
“Any credible process will need Russia’s participation,” he emphasized.
The final declaration of the summit will be announced later Sunday.
Kyiv hopes to achieve peace with Russia through intermediaries
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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