Ukraine: Zelensky wants to see Russia at an upcoming peace summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky opened the door to Ukraine for the first time. talks with Russia, assuring on Monday to be in favor of the presence of Moscow in an upcoming peace summit.

A first summit on peace in Ukraine was organized in mid-June in Switzerland, with several dozen countries represented, but Russia was not invited and China, Moscow's ally and heavyweight diplomatic, had decided not to participate.

Since then, Volodymyr Zelensky has said he wants to present a “plan” for “a just peace” in November, after nearly two and a half years of a war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of victims on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides.

“I have set the goal that in November, we will have a fully prepared plan” to be able to organize the summit, he said Monday during a press conference in kyiv.

Okhmatdyt pediatric hospital in kyiv after a Russian missile strike, July 12, 2024 © AFP – Sergei SUPINSKY

But for the first time, he also assured that he wanted Moscow to be present: “I think that Russian representatives should participate in this second summit,” he announced.

The Ukrainian president did not mention the cessation of hostilities, but the establishment of “a plan” on three subjects: Ukraine's energy security, including infrastructure has been ravaged by Russian bombings, free navigation in the Black Sea, a key subject for Ukrainian exports, and prisoner exchanges.

Russia still occupies nearly 20% of Ukrainian territory and the prospects for a ceasefire, or even a lasting peace between kyiv and Moscow, remain minimal at this stage.

This is the first time, however, that Volodymyr Zelensky has raised the idea of ​​discussions with Russia without prior Russian withdrawal from its territory.

In the past , he had also sworn not to want to discuss with Moscow as long as Vladimir Putin was in power and even signed a decree making negotiations with Moscow illegal.

– Irreconcilable positions –

Ukraine: positions of military forces © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sophie RAMIS, Cléa PECULIER

The positions between kyiv and Moscow, however, to date seem irreconcilable.

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Ukraine, led by Volodymyr Zelensky, regularly states that it wants to regain its sovereignty on all territories occupied by its Russian neighbor, including the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

kyiv proposed a 10-point peace plan, supported by the West, involving the unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory, or nearly 700,000 soldiers, according to figures presented by Vladimir Putin. A proposal swept aside by Moscow.

The Russian president, who ordered the attack of his army against Ukraine in February 2022, for his part has repeatedly said its “conditions”: the abandonment of the four regions which Moscow claims to annex in addition to Crimea, and the assurance that kyiv renounces joining NATO.

These demands were brushed aside by kyiv and its Western supporters.

The West repeats that it was up to Ukrainian officials to decide when they would like to discuss with Russia and under what conditions, and Volodymyr Zelensky assured Monday “not to think that we are being pushed” to negotiate.

The possibility of negotiations is “something that has been discussed with them,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday, while recalling that it was up to Ukraine to decide.

“If they want to invite Russia to the summit, we will support them,” he added, but noted that to date, Russia has not has shown no sign of wanting a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

The outcome of the presidential election in the United States, Ukraine's main ally, could play a role important role in the continuation of the conflict.

Republican Donald Trump, who has praised Vladimir Putin's policies in the past, has promised to end the war in a few weeks if he was elected in early November, leading some to fear that he could reduce American aid.

In the first weeks of the Russian invasion in 2022, Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Belarus, then in Turkey, to try to reach a peace agreement.

These attempts, however, failed, Russia has since assured that it was the West who had caused the discussions to fail.

An injured Ukrainian soldier receives treatment on the front in Chasiv Yar (east) on July 9, 2024 © press service of the 24th mechanized brigade of Ukrainian Armed forces – Handout

In February 2023, China, an ally of Russia, presented its own peace plan for Ukraine, without Moscow and Kiev seizing it to resume discussions.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Kremlin's privileged interlocutor in the European Union, was in Kiev and then Moscow at the beginning of July in the hope of moving the lines, but he In response, he drew the wrath of his European counterparts for his trip, especially since he called on kyiv for a ceasefire.

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