Russia will not be invited to the summit

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said last Sunday that the leaders of the countries supporting the "peace initiative" bearing his name will meet at a summit to be held in the coming months.

The "Global Peace Summit" - is planned to be held during the spring.

Russia must not be invited to the meeting that Ukraine has asked Switzerland to organize.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis already said a couple of days earlier in New York that Switzerland is ready to organize a "peace conference" at the initiative of Ukraine. In his speech at the UN General Assembly, he called on UN member states to work together to bring peace to Ukraine.

However, the foreign minister did not extend an invitation to all UN member states because they want to keep Russia out of the meeting.

According to the Swiss foreign minister, the purpose of the conference is to discuss Zelensky's "peace initiative".

According to the foreign minister, the "peace conference" should help to achieve peace in Ukraine and therefore get as many countries as possible to discuss Zelensky's initiative. The goal is to make Zelensky's proposal a joint initiative of as many countries as possible.

According to Zelensky, the purpose of the summit is to finalize and approve a "peace initiative", which will be forwarded to Russia for information. "But this does not mean that Russia will accept the document," said the Ukrainian president.

Zelensky also recently discussed the future president of Finland in Munich by Alexander Stubb with about the problems of organizing the summit, asking for help in securing its representativeness.

Above all, Zelensky's wish is to get the so-called according to the global south. Finland has apparently been thought to be able to help because, unlike many other Western countries, Finland is not burdened by a colonial legacy.

The goal is a meeting of 160 countries

Head of Zelensky's presidential administration Andriy Yermak has said that Ukraine is in discussions with 160 countries about participating in a "peace conference". There is no intention to discuss the "peace initiative" with Russia before its final approval.

According to Yermak, the "Russian delegation" may receive an invitation to the second summit to be held later, if the invited delegation agrees to end hostilities and Russia is ready to "return to a just world".

According to Yermak, what is meant by a "just world" can be found in Zelensky's "peace initiative".

Actions based on the approved "peace initiative" would be proposed for the second meeting to be organized later, which would promote the implementation of Zelensky's initiative.

Zelensky's "peace initiative"

Zelensky announced his ten-point "peace initiative" in November 2022 at the G20 summit in Indonesia. The central part of the "peace initiative" is the achievement of Ukraine's 1991 borders.

The starting point of the initiative is Ukraine's territorial integrity, which it does not intend to negotiate. Russia must withdraw its troops from all the territories it has occupied, including the Crimean peninsula. In practice, this means that Ukraine is not ready to negotiate at all on regional issues.

Zelensky's initiative also proposes the establishment of a special international court to judge Russia's attack on Ukraine and compensate all the damage caused by a separately created mechanism.

The initiative also seeks actual support for Ukraine's NATO and EU membership. According to the initiative, the Russian attack was made possible by the fact that Ukraine was outside the "Euro-Atlantic world" in a "gray zone". The initiative also presents security guarantees so that Russia can no longer attack Ukraine in the future.

Before announcing his proposal, Zelensky passed a decree in September 2022 banning all peace negotiations with Russia as long as the president Vladimir Putin lead the country. The Ukrainian press reported on the decision on October 4.

Russia regards Zelensky's initiative as an ultimatum

Russia's reaction to Zelensky's initiative and Ukraine's and Switzerland's announcement of the summit has been downright negative. Russia sees the initiative as an ultimatum.

At the UN General Assembly in September 2023, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov referred to the Zelensky initiative committed by Washington, London and Brussels. The West is not even going to discuss other proposals. However, according to the Foreign Minister, everyone knows that it is not possible to implement the initiative.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov thinks that the discussion about Zelensky's "peace proposal" is just talking for the sake of talking, and it cannot bring results. Even earlier, Russia had announced that it considered Zelensky's idea to be unrealistic and incomplete. Peshkov believed that the main reason why the talks cannot bring results is that Russia is not involved in them at all.

Russia's ambassador to the UN Wassily Nebenzia on the other hand, stated at the UN Security Council meeting that it is pointless to waste time on Zelensky's proposal, because it is actually an ultimatum to Russia. "The goal now is to trick as many countries as possible into participating in the endless meetings of the utopian project," the ambassador said.

The "peace conference" has many obstacles

The preparation of the "peace conference" was also on display at the meeting held in Davos, Switzerland in January, which, according to Switzerland, was attended by representatives of more than 80 countries and international organizations.

Originally, the summit was planned for the beginning of 2024. One idea was to organize a "peace conference" on the anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, on February 24. However, it was not possible because there would have been too few participants.

Swiss Foreign Minister Cassis stated after the preparatory meeting in Davos that there are still many uncertainties surrounding the organization of the summit. He emphasized that the BRICS countries, for example, should be widely represented.

The reason for the repeated postponement of the summit has, above all, been that there has been no certainty about the participation of China, India, South Africa, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates so far. Also the so-called in the global south, there has been little interest in supporting Zelensky's initiative.

Answering the question whether it would be realistic to hold a "peace conference" in the next few months, the foreign minister stated that at least the military situation should be "ripe" for the meeting to be held. Cassis did not elaborate on what he meant by his expression.

Both Switzerland and Ukraine considered it important that representatives from Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and South Africa participated in the Davos talks, along with the authorities responsible for the national security of the United States and many European countries.

During the day-long meeting, problems related to the organization of the conference were discussed under the leadership of the Swiss Foreign Minister. Three similar meetings have already been organized before Davos: in Copenhagen, Jeddah and Malta.

Ukraine now plans to continue bilateral talks with Latin American and African countries.

China's involvement Ukraine's number one concern

Ukraine and its allies are investing especially in getting China to participate in the meeting and support Zelensky's "peace initiative".

"China is an important and influential country", stated Yermak, saying that Ukraine is looking for ways that would enable China's participation.

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, President Zelensky did not have the expected meeting with the Chinese Premier Li Qiang's with, even though Yermak had previously indicated the possibility of a meeting and even though both attended the WEF meeting.

China also did not participate in the meeting organized in Davos, where Zelensky's initiative and the organization of the "peace conference" were discussed.

Yermak did say that China has participated in the ambassadorial meetings organized in Kiev, where Zelensky's initiative and summit plans have been discussed. China was also involved in the Jeddah meeting, but no longer in Davos, although China was invited there.

Zelensky, on the other hand, commented quite rudely on why the meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister was not organized in Davos.

"As far as I know, in China, decisions are made by the president Xi Jinping. And in Ukraine, I make the decisions. I don't need any discussions, but important decisions from the executives who make the decisions". Zelensky added that "China has a prime minister, and then our prime minister will meet him."

Zelensky falsely claimed that he had no intention of meeting the Chinese premier. According to the American publication Politico, China's refusal to meet was an "unpleasant surprise" for Ukraine.

Later, at the Munich Security Conference, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Ji met the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleban, who informed his colleague about organizing a "peace conference".

Wang Ji stated that China is not a party to the Ukraine crisis and is not using the situation to its own advantage, although it is not inactive. China also does not sell weapons to either side of the conflict in Ukraine.

China's foreign minister emphasized at the security conference that China considers it essential to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict, even though the conditions are not yet ripe for the parties to return to peace negotiations.

Russia: Switzerland is not suitable as a mediator

Lavrov said that he told the Swiss foreign minister in New York in January that the country's policy towards Russia has become unfriendly and that Switzerland is slipping away from neutrality.

Russian Ambassador to Switzerland By Sergei Garmon later announced that Russia no longer considers Switzerland capable of acting as a possible peace mediator. According to the ambassador, the reason for this is that in the conflict in Ukraine, the Swiss authorities have taken into account only the views of Kyiv.

The ambassador also pointed out that the Swiss leadership regularly supports the West's anti-Russian policy and has also supported every EU sanctions package against Russia, even though Switzerland is not a member of the EU. Switzerland also actively supports the fact that the Russian leadership should be tried in an international court.

In December 2023, the Swiss government announced that it had frozen an estimated $8,81 billion in Russian and Russian funds and assets. Switzerland is also considering confiscating funds and transferring them to Ukraine. Switzerland has not given armed support to Ukraine.

According to the Russian ambassador, the Swiss Confederation has brought down the country's activities as a neutral state and can no longer be considered as a peace mediator.

Swiss Foreign Minister Cassis has mentioned several times that peace in Ukraine cannot be achieved without Russia's participation in the negotiations. However, Switzerland has accepted that Russia will not be invited to the summit.

Britain and the United States overturned the agreement reached in 2022

It is known that the president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to discuss the Russian president Vladimir Putin with about the possibilities of ending the war in Ukraine in the near future. Putin is scheduled to visit Turkey after the Russian presidential elections in March.

The peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, which took place through Turkey in March 2022, were successful to the extent that the countries' delegations reached an agreement on the outcome of the negotiations in Istanbul.

In the written draft agreement initiated by the chairmen of the delegations, which was created based on Ukraine's proposal, Russia agreed to withdraw its forces to the positions that existed before February 24, 2022, and Ukraine, in turn, promised to remain outside of NATO membership.

In addition, an agreement was reached on the cessation of hostilities. It was agreed to freeze the situation in the disputed areas. The purpose was to start negotiations on the final future of the regions after Presidents Zelensky and Putin had given the final seal to the agreement.

Putin stated the American journalist Tucker Carlsson in the interview, that there was also a consensus about denazification and what it means in the negotiations in Istanbul.

However, Britain and the United States prevented the creation of a final agreement.

Chairman of the parliamentary group of Zelensky's party Davyd Arakham said in November 2023 that the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had informed Ukraine that the already achieved negotiation result should not be accepted, but the fight against Russia must be continued. The United States also opposed accepting the negotiation result.

Russia has repeatedly announced that it is ready for negotiations with Ukraine. President Putin has also reminded several times that it was Ukraine that suspended the negotiations in 2022 and that the Ukrainian authorities publicly announced in the same year that they no longer intend to participate in the peace talks.

If Ukraine is ever ready for peace talks with Russia, Zelensky must first repeal the current decree that prohibits all negotiations with Russia as long as the country's president is Putin. However, Zelensky is not going to do this, at least not in the foreseeable future.