(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine wants a second leaders’ summit expected later this year to pave the way for the end of fighting, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said.
Andriy Yermak has led Kyiv’s efforts to organize the meeting to achieve a fair peace settlement after the first gathering in Switzerland in June failed to win over key nations from the Global South.
Zelenskiy is pushing to convene the second summit before the US elections in November with Russia potentially present at the table. The efforts come as Ukraine and its western allies fret about Donald Trump’s return as president amid growing fatigue and lack of major breakthroughs on the battlefield.
“The most important expectation for the second summit is for it to shape major prerequisites for stopping the hostilities,” Yermak told Bloomberg in an interview from his office in Kyiv on Wednesday. “We need to end this war as soon as possible to get a just peace.”
Yermak said the gathering will be held in a country from the so-called Global South, probably in the Middle East, in a show of the “world’s unity” amid Russia’s attempts to divide it.
The previous peace summit held in Switzerland last June was marred by Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine give up a significant chunk of its territory as a prerequisite for peace, which Ukraine has repeatedly rejected. Russia wasn’t invited to the meeting, while China declined to attend.
Although Ukraine attempted to focus on topics which could gain broader consensus, such as nuclear security and the return of abducted children, the summit also failed to gain the support of key nations such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
Securing China’s participation next time is of crucial importance to Ukraine. The country is a “big player who is really able to influence Russia,” Yermak said.
So far, the signs are not promising. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba during a visit in Beijing last month that the time was “not yet ripe” for peace talks to end the war with Russia.
--With assistance from Aliaksandr Kudrytski.
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