Participants of the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland will formulate a common negotiating position on the end of the war and submit it to Russia, presidential spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov said on May 3, according to Deutsche Welle.
Ukraine’s peace summit will be held on June 15-16 in the Burgenstock resort above Lake Lucerne, and 160 national delegations will be invited to the talks.
Russia, the aggressor in the ongoing war, will not be invited “at this stage” of the talks, the Swiss government said.
“Ukraine and Switzerland are organizing a peace summit where countries that respect international law and the U.N. Charter should develop a common negotiating position and submit it to Russia,” Nykyforov said.
His statement came after Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, said in an interview with the Economist that he sees no way for Ukraine to win a war on the battlefield alone and that “such wars can only end with treaties.”
Several positions on certain points of Ukraine’s peace formula may be agreed at the upcoming summit, including radiation safety, prisoners exchange, freedom of navigation and food safety, Nykyforov told Ukrainska Pravda.
“This will be the first step towards a just peace,” he said.
The founding principles of the peace summit were developed in a series of international meetings and centered around Ukraine’s 10-point peace formula.
The formula envisages withdrawing all Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, release of all prisoners of war and deportees, preventing ecocide in Ukraine, and punishing those responsible for war crimes.
Opinion: 6 obstacles to peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia
There is consensus among observers of Russia’s war against Ukraine that it should end as soon as possible. Most Ukrainians couldn’t agree more. Today, one suspects, many Russians would also not mind ceasing the carnage. Why, then, is there still not – and likely will not be any time