The initiative continues the mid-June summit in Geneva, attended by 93 countries. Ukraine never wanted war – said Zelenski during that event.
However, there were no Russians in Switzerland, and respective countries sent lower-level delegations. Ukraine sought to gain support among any African, Asian and South American states, but unsuccessfully. any of these countries refused to sign the final declaration and Chinese representatives did not take part in the discussions at all. 1 of the reasons for the failure of the Ukrainian diplomatic offensive in Geneva was the opposition of the Global South states, which believed that Moscow should have attended the meeting.
Kiev tried to gain broad support for principles that would form the basis of just peace in the future. These principles were to be crucial in the context of future talks with Russia. The Swiss summit focused on atomic safety, food safety and the return of kidnapped children.
Fear of November?
At a press conference after the summit in Switzerland, president Zelenski stated that Russia was not seeking peace. He declared that Ukraine was ready to begin peace talks as shortly as Russia withdrew its troops from the country. Russia can start peace talks with us even tomorrow, without waiting, if it withdraws from the territories that belong to us – stated in June. The president of Ukraine stressed that it was a success for almost all countries participating in the conference of territorial integrity of Ukraine.
In his speech at the Reagan Institute in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski appealed to the United States for assistance in organizing the second summit.
According to Bloomberg, the emphasis on organising a peace summit before the November U.S. elections suggests that Ukrainians fear the return of Donald Trump to the White House. The Republican candidate for president has repeatedly declared that he can end the war even before his inauguration in January and was against the continued support of Ukraine.
End of war
If Trump knows how to end this war, he should tell us today. If there is simply a threat to Ukraine's independence, if we are to lose statehood, we want to be prepared for it, we want to know – stated Zelenski in an interview with Bloomberg.
The president of Ukraine besides added that he is “potentially ready” to meet Trump. They cannot plan my life and the lives of our citizens, our children. We want to know whether we will have strong US support in November or whether we will be alone – he noted.
According to Zelenski, China could play a key function in ending the war, on which Russia is very dependent. As he said, the United States and China should put aside their differences and take action together to end the conflict.
