World leaders meet in Switzerland to discuss a road map for peace in Ukraine. Russia is notably absent – ​​WFTV

Participants faced a delicate balancing act, with many blaming Russia for breaking international law while hiding their positions to leave the door open for Moscow to join future peace talks that could one day bring a end to the conflict.

“Here there are representatives from Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the Pacific, North America and religious leaders,” he said. Zelensky said. “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 decide on a real end to the war.”

Nearly half of the approximately 100 delegations were led by heads of state and government. Analysts said the turnout would be a key indicator of the influence of Ukraine and its loyal Western backers on the international community as a whole.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sought Friday to cast a shadow over the Swiss-Ukrainian initiative regarding the conference. Some countries like India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia that have maintained sometimes lucrative ties with Moscow – unlike Western powers that sanctioned Russia during the war – were also present.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told the conference that credible peace talks would require Russia’s participation and would require a “difficult compromise.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan acknowledged the distrust between Russia and Ukraine, saying that “each side considers the other side’s measures (in the floating proposals) as an extension of a war effort wider”.

“Excellences, I must also note that this summit could have been more results-oriented if the other party to the conflict, Russia, was present in the room,” he added.

Entering the room, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, a NATO member who has been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, said Russian troops must leave Ukraine and that Moscow should be held responsible for crimes committed in this country and pay reparations. for war damage.

“For now it seems unrealistic, but I think we need to stay united, and if international society puts pressure on the Russian Federation, anything is possible,” he told The Associated Press. “I think the situation is very clear: Ukraine must pursue territorial integrity.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris, representing the United States while President Joe Biden attended a fundraiser in California, reiterated America’s full support for Ukraine and announced $1 in new US aid .5 billion dollars for a series of projects such as energy infrastructure and civil security.

China, which supports Russia, joined many countries that did not participate in the event. Beijing has said any peace process will require the participation of Russia and Ukraine and has floated its own pro-peace ideas.

In a separate initiative last month, China and Brazil agreed to six “joint agreements” toward a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, asking other countries to play a role in promoting peace negotiations that will hold “in due course” with Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine involved.

The standoff over Ukraine is steeped in security issues for Europe – it is the deadliest conflict on the continent since World War II – and great power geopolitics.

U.S. intelligence officials say China has increased sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technologies that Moscow uses to produce missiles, tanks, planes and other weapons to power its war effort.

“What is clear is that China is not there, and I guess they are not there because Putin asked them not to come and they obliged Putin,” said Jake Sullivan, Biden’s top foreign policy adviser. “And I think that says a lot about China’s position on the Russian-led war in Ukraine. I think countries should take this into account.

Both Harris and Sullivan acknowledged that not all participants were on the same page about a possible peace deal.

Russian troops, who control nearly a quarter of Ukraine, have made territorial gains in recent months. When talks of a Swiss-hosted peace summit began last summer, Ukrainian forces had recently reconquered large swaths of territory, including near the southern city of Kherson and the northern city of Kharkiv.

The conference focuses on three agenda items – seen as the least controversial elements of a 10-point peace “formula” presented by Zelensky: nuclear security, including at the Zaporizhzhia power plant occupied by Russia ; possible exchanges of prisoners of war; and global food security. The war disrupted shipments of food and fertilizer via the Black Sea.

Zelensky’s plan also called 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. With Ukrainians mostly on the defensive these days, those hopes seem increasingly distant.

Putin wants any peace deal to be built around a draft deal negotiated at the start of the war, which included provisions on Ukraine’s neutral status and limits on its armed forces, while delaying negotiations on areas occupied by Russia. Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO over the years have angered Moscow.

He wants Ukraine to abandon its NATO bid and withdraw its forces from regions Russia illegally annexed in 2022.

“The situation on the battlefield has changed dramatically,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, emphasizing that while Russia “cannot quickly achieve its maximalist goals by military means,” it is gaining momentum. scale on the battlefield.

As world leaders discuss the path to peace in Switzerland, the war continues in Ukraine, where bombings killed at least three civilians and injured 15 others Friday and Saturday night, officials said regional.

At the same time, Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, in the south of Russia, accused Ukraine, in a message published on social networks, of being responsible for the bombing which hit a building on Friday five stories high in the town of Shebekino, killing five people. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

___

Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and Joanna Kozlowska in London contributed to this report.