“KYIV: “Zelenskyy Urges Russian Attendance at Second Ukraine Summit”,Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized on Monday (Jul 15) the importance of Russia’s participation in a second summit aimed at achieving lasting peace with the Kremlin, following over two years of ongoing conflict.”
“Both sides have avoided direct peace talks since negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations collapsed in the initial weeks of Russia’s invasion, which began in February 2022.”
“But dozens of world leaders voiced support for a just resolution to the conflict in Ukraine following a high-level summit convened by Zelenskyy last month in Switzerland. Russia, however, was not invited.”
During a press conference in Kyiv following his visit to the United States for a NATO defence alliance summit, Zelenskyy opened the door to direct talks with officials from Moscow.
He announced separate meetings on key issues, including energy, to be held in Qatar and on food security in Türkiye ahead of a second summit.
He also said there would be a separate meeting on prisoner exchanges and humanitarian issues at a meeting in Canada.
Leaders and top officials from more than 90 states gathered at a Swiss mountainside resort on Jun 15 for the two-day summit dedicated to resolving the largest European conflict since World War II.
The Kremlin responded to the gathering saying that any discussions around ending the conflict that did not include Russia were “absurd”.
Zelenskyy also reiterated on Monday that Ukraine was not being pressured to enter into negotiations with Russia and that Western military or financial support was not being conditioned on holding talks with the Kremlin.
He said levels of support from abroad were allowing Ukraine to hold out against Russian attacks but do not give it a sufficient advantage to “win”, without elaborating.
