Zelenski's Summit Has Failed
The reviews of Zelenski's latest show ain't positive:
Russia’s ghost loomed over Ukraine peace summit - Politico.eu
In Ukraine, soldiers and civilians shrug off Zelensky's summit - AFP
Ukraine’s Global Diplomatic Flurry Fails to Outflank Russia (archived) - WSJ
Significant support for Ukraine at peace summit - but key nations hesitate - Sky News
India opts out of Ukraine declaration at Swiss peace summit as Russia stays away - India Today
Major Ukraine summit ends with fresh plea for peace but key powers spurn final agreement - CNN
Disappointing end to Ukraine summit as allies agree to watered-down peace declaration - Telegraph
The summit served warmed up bullshit without any significant nutritional value. The most important points weren't even discussed:
Genuinely astonishing how the final communiqué of Swiss “Summit on Peace in Ukraine” (link) is basically 6 out of the 12 points of China's February 2023 "Peace plan" (link), and only that.
In short it's the Chinese peace plan, without:
A call for a cessation of hostilities
A call to resume peace talks.
A call to "abandon the Cold War mentality"
A call to resolve the humanitarian crisis.
An agreement to remove "unilateral sanctions"
An agreement to support post-conflict reconstruction
The only points it keeps from the Chinese peace plan are:
Point 1: To base the resolution of the conflict on the UN Charter
Point 6: Asking that all prisoners of war and detainees should be released
Points 7 & 8: Calling for nuclear plants to be safe and stating that nuclear weapons shouldn't be used
Points 9 & 11: Asking that food security and supply chains be maintained and be weaponized
And that's almost 1 year and a half AFTER the Chinese Peace Plan, which the West rejected immediately out of hand and ironically criticized as being "vague" even though the outcome of this Swiss summit is now far vaguer, in fact it's so vague it removed all the aspects of the Chinese plan that actually proposed a path to a sustainable peace ...
Just goes to show how far away we are from peace, almost 2 years and a half into the war... And also goes to show that maybe, just maybe, China's proposal wasn't so bad after all 😏
The final declaration included a clause on the need to involve "all parties" in the negotiations, which can be interpreted as a desire to involve the Russian Federation in future summits. This was stated by many participants of the summit (primarily from the countries of the "global South"). Zelensky also said about his desire to see Russia at the second summit, saying that Russia's presence there would mean that it "wants peace."
But given the complete discrepancy in the positions of the parties regarding how they see the end of the war, it is still very early to talk about any negotiations. These positions may become closer under the influence of two factors-the situation on the battlefield and / or coordinated pressure on both belligerents by their key international partners. And only in the case of such a convergence of positions will real negotiations become possible.
The war will continue until the complete destruction of the Ukrainian forces can no longer be ignored.