(Geneva) A few days before the peace conference in Ukraine without Russia, Kyiv on Tuesday considered Moscow’s participation in a subsequent summit, in order to receive a road map approved by the international community to end the conflict .
“We plan to prepare together the common plan which will be supported by all responsible countries. And we are considering the possibility, at the second summit, of inviting a representative of Russia and together presenting this common plan,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, told European media.
“For the second summit, we will work with all colleagues, with all countries that wish to participate,” Mr. Iermak emphasized by video link from Berlin.
Moscow has said it does not want to participate in this weekend’s summit and has therefore not been invited by host country Switzerland, while Ukraine wants concrete results to present at the second summit. .
For this close friend of the Ukrainian president, the “bad experience” of previous negotiation formats involving Moscow, before the total invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, showed that to end the war it will be necessary to rely on a broad platform of support rooted in international law.
A perspective supported by “100 or more countries” from all continents, rather than just Ukraine’s position, “will be a very difficult plan to challenge,” he said.
Dozens of leaders from around the world will meet in Switzerland on Saturday and Sunday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a summit designed as a “first step” to find the path to peace in Ukraine, but without Moscow or Beijing.
This “High Level Conference on Peace in Ukraine”, which is to be held in the Burgenstock hotel complex, will take place in the wake of the G7 meeting, from Thursday to Saturday, in the south of Italy, with the participation in Mr. Zelensky’s two meetings.
G7 leaders hope to reach an agreement on the use of interest from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, targeted since February 2022 by a deadly Russian offensive.
Mr. Zelensky will then join, in Switzerland, representatives of more than 90 states and organizations, including French President Emmanuel Macron, American Vice-President Kamala Harris and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
About half of the leaders will be Europeans. The objective of the summit, requested by Kyiv, is to “inspire a future peace process”, but the outcome of the meeting remains uncertain.