How Russia is trying to sabotage the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland | DW News

How Russia is trying to sabotage the Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland | DW News

a summit on peace in Ukraine kicks off today in Switzerland bringing together more than 90 countries Ukraine’s president fimir zalinski arrived in the town of gorano on Friday evening German Chancellor Olaf Schultz French president Emanuel macron and US vice president kamla Harris will also attend the summit aims to create Unity around a peace plan put forward by Ukraine but Russia is not invited and its main backer China is not coming either the conference is also serving to highlight divisions among the International Community about the way forward in Ukraine only together we can stop the madness from Moscow until we deprive Russia of the opportunity to terrorize Ukraine Putin will have no real interest in Seeking a fair peace but for a fair peace more must be done Ukrainian president vomir zalinski on the road in Stockholm Berlin Paris at the G7 Summit in Italy always the same message Ukraine needs more support to stop Russian aggression at home Ukraine faces an unrelenting Onslaught its forces are overstretched and low on ammunition and soldiers while Russia Reigns missiles on its cities and makes territorial gains a stark contrast to the peace Summit in the Swiss Alps where Ukraine’s friends are gathering to discuss its peace plan without Russia solinsky’s 10-point plan includes demands that Russia respect Ukraine’s territorial Integrity which means giving back land it has captured by force it also Demands a complete Russian military withdrawal calls for an international court for Russian war crimes and reparations it’s not clear if there will be a consensus on the key points but after the G7 Summit Ukraine can count on long-term support from its closest allies a lasting peace for Ukraine must be underwritten by Ukraine’s own ability to defend itself now and to deter future aggression anytime in the in the future however undercutting the Ukrainian plan Brazil and China have released their own peace plan calling for deescalation and dialogue without naming Russia as the aggressor neither country is attending the peace Summit China said it was pointless if both Russia and Ukraine did not participate zalinsky has been diplomatic in responding to China’s [ __ ] statements if China has alternative view on it it can prepare alternative peace formula if we share common views on it like with globally with all the world I think so so if they share the same way to pece we will find dialogue zalinsky has tried to drum up as much support from the so-called Global South is possible visiting Singapore and the Philippines last week to meet with leaders but zinski was unable to convince many countries from the global South to join the peace Summit and get them to support his plan to isolate Russia some have left it unclear or say they will not attend as the war rages on it’s unclear just how much real progress can happen without involving Russia or China but organizers say the talks are a start with the goal of eventually bringing Russia to the table and we have our correspondent Rosie Berard in Switzerland with the very latest Rosie as we’ve heard Russia was not invited so what exactly can these discussions achieve without them there yeah Russia was not invited but also Russia made it very clear as soon as there was any public word of this conference to be planned that it thought it was pointless and that it was not interested in coming in any case so I think what the organizers are hoping is that this idilic setting in the Swiss Mountains will really give some world leaders some FaceTime away from their domestic politics to try and think about what future peace in Ukraine could look like they’re going to talk about a couple of uh of the less controversial topics so for example humanitarian issues food security the return of Ukrainian children which while they are still complicated to discuss they’re nowhere near as controversial for all these leaders gathered here as topics like what about the question of where borders lie and secondly I think organizers in Ukraine would like to show that there is support for Kev here Russia on the other hand has been doing everything in its power to derail this Summit now Rosie uh Vladimir Putin has floated a proposal which includes Ukraine abandoning four provinces and also dropping any Ambitions of joining NATO is is his vision being considered seriously at all at this meeting certainly not by Ukraine or by its Western allies for example German Chancellor Olaf Schultz has basically accused Russia of putting this so-called proposal out just on the eve of this Summit in order to kind of distract from it and I think analysts would say that is part of a broader Russian plan here because not only has Russia put out this so-called peace proposal which of course in basically asks Ukraine to capitulate and give over its territory it’s also been putting pressure on many countries worldwide and its Partners to not show up to this Summit and really one of the big questions looming ahead of these talks was what who is going to be on that final guest list I was looking at it just as it was released and there are around 57 heads of state here overall in about 95 countries represented but there are some really notable absences when it comes to diplomatic big Hitters from Asia Africa Latin America so for example South Africa Brazil India Indonesia have all chosen to either send diplomats or ministers instead of heads of state and I think that will be seen by many as a snub here still organizers saying look the fact that we’ve managed to gather so many countries here does in itself show that there is a rallying around the idea of trying to broker an end to this war which of course continues to drag on and ukrainians still fighting to defend their territory so just to be clear do you think there is any chance of seeing another proposal for a peace plan coming out of this Summit so what I have heard from sources that I’ve been speaking to here is that there is a declaration being drafted so there should be a text which is signed by countries that are present present here but I’ve been told that this is probably going to be pretty uh weak in terms of the wording it’s used because of course when you’re trying to get an agreement on a text between 90 or 95 countries that you’re going to have to word it very carefully in order to get the backing of each one of them particularly those countries in the so-called Global South that have been walking in ever narrow or tight rope trying to show uh support for the west but also not to uh the dist themselves too much from Russia and particularly China China of course a big player which is not at this conference so some sort of a declaration but of course really organizers know that this is not going to be a conference where peace is brokered Russia is not at the table it’s about laying the ground for future talks but certainly I think a case of kind of high stakes with that war dragon on but relatively low expectations in terms of what’s actually going to come out of this conference our correspondent Rosie Berard in Switzerland thank you so much

A summit on Peace in Ukraine kicks off today in Switzerland, bringing together more than 90 countries. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the town of Bürgenstock on Friday evening. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and US Vice President Kamala Harris will also attend. The summit aims to create unity around a peace plan put forward by Ukraine, but Russia is not invited and its main backer China is not coming either. The conference is also serving to highlight divisions among the international community about the way forward in Ukraine.

00:00 Intro and report
03:34 DW’s Rosie Birchard reports from Bürgenstock, Switzerland

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