On Monday, Zelensky declared that Russia “should be” represented at a follow-up conference on the Ukraine war. This comes after high-level negotiations in Switzerland last month, which Moscow strongly objected to and ignored.
“There was no peace summit at all at the first one. In response to Zelensky’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Zvezda television channel, “So perhaps it is necessary first to understand what he means.”
Zelensky’s apparent openness to holding talks with Russia contrasts with the last meeting in Switzerland, where the Ukrainian president had firmly denied receiving an invitation from Moscow.
The unexpected remarks from Kyiv coincide with the country’s soldiers losing ground in the front lines and the US preparing for presidential elections that have the potential to drastically alter the course of the war.
On June 15, leaders and high-ranking officials from over 90 governments convened at a resort on a Swiss hillside to participate in a two-day summit aimed at resolving the biggest war in Europe since World War II.
Russia and China were conspicuously absent.
The meeting drew harsh criticism from the Kremlin, which described any talks on a settlement to the crisis that excluded Russia as “absurd.”
Washington stated on Monday that it supported Ukraine’s choice to extend an invitation to Russia for a second summit, but it wasn’t sure if Moscow was prepared for negotiations.
Journalists were informed by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller that “we support them when they want to invite Russia to that summit, of course.”
“We have consistently backed diplomacy when Ukraine is prepared, but it has never been evident that the Kremlin is prepared to engage in substantive diplomacy,” he stated.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, stated prior to the summit last month that he was amenable to negotiations and would declare a truce in the event that Kyiv essentially gave up land that Moscow claims as its own.
Putin’s demands were derided by Zelensky as a territorial “ultimatum” akin to Adolf Hitler’s, and the United States and other Western allies of Ukraine responded with contempt.
But there’s considerable concern in Kyiv regarding how US funding to Ukraine would be affected if Donald Trump wins the US elections in November.
The nominee for the Republican Party has stated that, should he win back the presidency, he will put a stop to the conflict right away. Kyiv believes that this would compel it to deal with Moscow from a weaker position.
Zelensky declared on Monday that he was “not worried” about the possibility of a Trump win and that he continued to rely on American assistance, which is Ukraine’s largest source of financial and military support.
AFP
