New Delhi: As dozens of world leaders converged in Switzerland to attend a conference planned to discuss steps on how to bring the Ukraine-Russia war to an end, Vladimir Putin remained absent from the meeting, reflecting no signs of truce in sight. Accompanying Putin in sitting out the event was Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Two years into the war, both sides involved in the war have ruled out stepping back without their demands being met with Kyiv sticking to its demands that Russia moves out of all Ukrainian territory it has seized and Moscow pushing ahead with its grinding offensive that has already captured large swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine.
The conference at the Bürgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne was also attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who suggested the world leaders that joint efforts can stop a war. While many attendees criticised Russia for breaching international law, many believed that Moscow may join future peace talks that might bring about an end to the conflict one day.
‘If Russia Was Interested in Peace, There Would Be No War’
“Here, there are representatives from Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the Pacific, North America and religious leaders,” news agency AP quoted Zelenskyy as saying. Citing Russia’s absence, Zelenskyy said that Putin was not at all interested in peace. “Now, there is no Russia here. Why? Because if Russia was interested in peace, there would be no war.” “We must decide together what a just peace means for the world and how it can be achieved in a truly lasting way,” he said.
“At the first peace summit, we must determine how to achieve a just peace, so that at the second, we can already settle on a real end to the war,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Russian President had on Friday raised concerns over the Swiss-Ukrainian initiative for the conference. Some countries such as India, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia that have retained ties with Moscow — unlike Western powers that have sanctioned Russia over the war — were also on hand.
China Skips Meet
While, Beijing has said that any peace talks to end the war would require the involvement of both Russia and Ukraine, and has floated its own ideas for peace. In a separate initiative, China and Brazil had in May agreed to six “common understandings” to promote a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, asking other countries to play a role in promoting peace talks to be held “at a proper time” with the participation of both Russia and Ukraine.
Agenda of Conference
The conference revolved around three agenda items — seen as the least controversial bits of a 10-point peace “formula” laid out by Zelenskyy: Nuclear safety, including at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant; possible prisoner of war exchanges; and global food security. The war has hindered shipments of food and fertilizer through the Black Sea.
Zelenskyy’s peace plan also demanded for the withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied Ukrainian territory, the cessation of hostilities and the restoration of Ukraine’s original borders with Russia, including Russia’s withdrawal from occupied Crimea.
Whereas Putin wants any peace deal to be built around a draft agreement negotiated in the early phases of the war that included provisions for Ukraine’s neutral status and limits on its armed forces, while delaying talks about Russian-occupied areas. Ukraine’s push to join NATO over the years has annoyed Moscow. The Russian President demands that Ukraine drop its attempt to join NATO and get out of regions that Russia illegally capptured in 2022.
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