By Dave Graham and Sabine Siebold
BUERGENSTOCK, Switzerland (Reuters) -Western powers and their allies at a summit in Switzerland denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Sunday, however they failed to steer main non-aligned states to hitch their last assertion, and no nation got here ahead to host a sequel.
Over 90 nations attended the two-day talks at a Swiss Alpine resort on the behest of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, billed as a “peace summit” regardless that Moscow was not invited.
Russia ridiculed the occasion from afar. A call by China to remain away all however assured that the summit would fail to realize Ukraine’s purpose of persuading main nations from the “global South” to hitch in isolating Russia.
Brazil attended solely as an “observer”. And ultimately, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Africa all withheld their signatures from the summit communique, regardless that some contentious points have been omitted within the hope of drawing wider help.
Nonetheless, the convention offered Kyiv with an opportunity to showcase the help from Western allies that it says it must hold preventing towards a far greater enemy.
“We are responding to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine not only with a full-scale defense of human life, but also with full-scale diplomacy,” Zelenskiy mentioned.
Leaders together with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron gathered on the mountaintop resort of Buergenstock. U.S. President Joe Biden, in Europe for different occasions final week, didn’t attend regardless of public invites from Zelenskiy.
The frontlines in Ukraine have barely moved because the finish of 2022, regardless of tens of hundreds of lifeless on either side in relentless trench warfare, the bloodiest preventing in Europe since World Conflict Two.
In her closing remarks, Swiss President Viola Amherd warned that the “road ahead is long and challenging”.
Russia, because it has for weeks, mocked the gathering.
“None of the participants in the ‘peace forum’ knows what he is doing there and what his role is,” mentioned Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and now deputy chairman of the nation’s Safety Council.
‘THINGS CAN’T GO ON LIKE THIS’
After preliminary Ukrainian successes that noticed Kyiv repel an assault on the capital and recapture territory within the battle’s first yr, a serious Ukrainian counter-offensive utilizing donated Western tanks fizzled final yr. Russian forces nonetheless maintain a fifth of Ukraine and are once more advancing, albeit slowly. No peace talks have been held for greater than two years.
“We know that peace in Ukraine will not be achieved in one step, it will be a journey,” European Fee Chief Ursula von der Leyen mentioned, calling for “patience and determination”.
“It was not a peace negotiation because (Russia’s President Vladimir) Putin is not serious about ending the war, he’s insisting on capitulation, he’s insisting on ceding Ukrainian territory – even territory that today is not occupied.”
Within the absence of a transparent path to ending the battle, Zelenskiy emphasised sensible points, corresponding to nuclear security and securing meals provides from Ukraine, one of many world’s greatest grain exporters.
The summit’s last declaration referred to as for Ukraine’s management over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and its Azov Sea ports to be restored. However in keeping with the convention’s extra modest acknowledged goals, it omitted more durable problems with what a post-war settlement for Ukraine may appear to be, whether or not Ukraine may be part of the NATO alliance or how troop withdrawals from either side may work.
“The more allies that can be found to say ‘Things can’t go on like this’, ‘This is too much’, ‘That’s overstepping the mark’, that also increases the moral pressure on the Russian Federation,” mentioned Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
As Sunday’s talks turned in the direction of problems with meals safety and nuclear energy, some leaders left early.
No nation got here ahead to host one other such assembly, with notable silence from Saudi Arabia, mooted as a doable future venue. Overseas Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud mentioned the dominion was prepared to help the peace course of however a viable settlement would hinge on “difficult compromise.”
Since preliminary peace talks within the first months after the Feb. 2022 invasion, Ukraine has constantly demanded Russia withdraw from all its land, whereas Moscow has demanded recognition of its rule over territory its forces captured.
Final week, in remarks clearly aimed on the convention, Putin mentioned Russia wouldn’t halt the battle till Kyiv withdraws its forces absolutely from 4 provinces that Moscow solely partially controls and claims to have annexed. Kyiv swiftly denounced that as a requirement for give up.
“Of course we…understand perfectly that a time will come when it will be necessary to talk to Russia,” Ukrainian Overseas Minister Dmytro Kuleba mentioned. “But our position is very clear: We will not allow Russia to speak in the language of ultimatums like it is speaking now.”
Western leaders on the summit endorsed Kyiv’s refusal to barter beneath such phrases.
“Confusing peace with subjugation would set a dangerous precedent for everyone,” mentioned Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.