Ukraine has taken the initiative to intensify preparations for the “peace summit”, which is scheduled for June 15-16 this year. The forum will be held at the prestigious Swiss resort of Bürgenstock.
Invitations will be sent to over 160 countries, although fewer will likely attend. According to the Ukrainian side, such a wide range of participants plan to discuss ways to achieve peace in Ukraine in light of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s formula (or “peace formula”), which requires the withdrawal of all Russian troops to the 1991 borders and the payment of reparations to Ukraine.
Russia was not invited to participate, but Kyiv and Western allies are hoping for the arrival of leaders of leading countries of the Global South – including Brazil, India, and especially China.
The Ukrainian leadership claims that they want to gather as many states as possible and start working on some kind of plan, which will later be presented to Russia by the “strong countries” as a kind of ultimatum. That is why China’s participation in the summit is so important for Ukraine, considering that it is China that currently has the greatest influence in the world on Russia.
However, experts suggest that Kyiv also needs a Swiss platform to strengthen Western unity and neutralize attempts to put forward alternative peace initiatives among Western countries.
Although if the leading countries of the “global south” do not come to the summit (or if they do, they will not support Zelensky’s “peace formula”), the emergence of new plans that do not coincide with the “peace formula” will perhaps be only a matter of time.
