The “Summit on Peace in Ukraine”, hosted by Switzerland this weekend, is not a peace conference in the usual sense. Russia, which has dismissed it as irrelevant, won’t participate. And any summit aimed at ending the war can’t produce a final settlement without Russia’s involvement.
Rather, the summit stems from a push by Ukraine to build wider support for “a path towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine”. Specifically, it wants to build consensus around some basic principles for a future settlement.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ten-point “peace formula”, first set out in November 2022, advocates some unobjectionable ideas. It also highlights the damage Russia’s invasion has inflicted on Ukraine, along with the dangers Russia poses to other countries.
