Ukraine peace conference unlikely to silence the guns

IIT WAS SHOWING to be a great spectacle, a historic conference on the 500th day of the war, and which could well end it. But from the start, Volodymyr Zelensky’s World Peace Summit ran into problems. Delayed five times, it was finally scheduled for June 15 and 16, days 843 and 844 of the conflict, respectively. Today, as the flags are ready to be raised at the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock, the worry is that the guest list is not long or high-profile enough. Russia was never supposed to be here. But the rebuffs from the Chinese and President Joe Biden were clear blows and prompted public rebukes from Mr. Zelensky. Vladimir Putin would applaud Mr. Biden’s absence, he said.

Mr. Zelensky’s mood has angered some of his own officials, who privately criticize the president’s “diplomatic naivety.” A former member of his government believes that this explosion shows that he was “too nervous” and that he was looking for scapegoats to cover up his mistakes. “Diplomacy is not supposed to be fun,” he laments. “It’s supposed to be serious.” A more charitable current official says the summit’s initial problems stem from Mr. Zelensky’s “maximalism.” The president’s ambitious ideas, he observes, don’t always work. “But if he sets lower targets, nothing comes of it at all.”