Ukraine floats possibility of inviting Russia to peace summit

KYIV: Ukraine and its foreign partners could invite Russia to a future peace summit to discuss an end to Moscow’s two-year-old invasion on Kyiv’s terms, a senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday.

Switzerland will host a summit to discuss a vision for peace by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which could be handed to Russia during a second meeting at a later date, said Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff.

“There can be a situation in which we together invite representatives of the Russian Federation, where they will be presented with the plan in case whoever is representing the aggressor country at that time will want to genuinely end this war and return to a just peace,” he said during a televised conference in Kyiv.

Zelensky first announced his peace formula at a November 2022 summit of the Group of 20 major economies. It calls for restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity and a total withdrawal of Russian troops.

Kyiv has maintained that it would not speak with Moscow until all Russian troops have left Ukrainian territory.

The Kremlin has said there is no current basis for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and that Kyiv’s peace plan was absurd because it excluded Russia.