6 months ago
26
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday he would present Moscow a proposal for ending the war when it had been agreed by the
international community
.
"We must decide together what a just peace means for the world and how it can be achieved in a lasting way," Zelenskyy told a major peace summit in central Switzerland, "then it will be communicated to the representatives of Russia." He vowed to press ahead in broadening international support for his war-battered nation as leaders risked falling short in finding a path for a "just peace."
World leaders gathered at a Swiss mountain resort to try to build support for
Ukraine
's peace proposals at a summit skipped by US President Joe Biden, shunned by China and dismissed as a waste of time by Moscow.
China's absence from the two-day meeting and the attendance of lower-level diplomats from the so-called BRICS states cast a shadow over efforts to win over the Global South. But the Ukrainian leader said the gathering would be the start of a process to force Russia to end its aggression and secure peace.
"Even if they are not here today at the first summit, we have succeeded in bringing to the world that joint efforts can stop war and establish peace," he told reporters at the start of the meeting at a mountaintop resort outside Lucerne.
After stopping off at a Group of Seven summit in Italy that yielded additional support, the Ukrainian leader turned his diplomatic efforts to potential allies outside the West. Ninety-two countries sent delegations to the summit, but the attendance list shows that attempts to maximize support among world leaders was a heavy lift.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the circle of countries participating in the process of working towards a peace plan for Ukraine should be widened.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Russia's latest
peace proposal
for Ukraine would lead to further domination of the country and is a "completely absurd vision".
Freezing the conflict in Ukraine is not an answer but a recipe for future wars of aggression, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the summit. "We need to support a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace for Ukraine. One that restores Ukraine's sovereignty and its territorial integrity."
Three years into the war, the combatants remain as far apart as they've ever been, with
Kyiv
sticking to its demands that Russia leave all Ukrainian territory it has seized and Moscow pressing on with its grinding offensive that has already taken large swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine.
