OBBÜRGEN, Switzerland — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy played the starring role at a peace conference in Switzerland on Saturday aimed at shoring up support for Ukraine’s negotiating positions in its war with Russia with the backing of as many nations as possible.
But some countries questioned the value of peace talks that did not involve negotiations between the warring sides.
“There is no Russia here,” Zelenskyy said, explaining to dozens of world leaders gathering at an Alpine resort why Russia was not invited to the meeting. “Why? Because if Russia was interested in peace, there would be no war.”
The two-day conference, which was attended by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, has emerged as Zelenskyy’s highest-profile effort to bring countries beyond Europe and North America onboard with his vision for ending the war: a peace plan that would involve Russia withdrawing from all of Ukraine, paying reparations and facing justice for war crimes.
Before the long-anticipated meeting — which Switzerland said would be attended by 57 heads of state and government — numerous non-Western countries balked at endorsing Zelenskyy’s full peace plan. So, Zelenskyy and the summit’s Swiss hosts decided to focus on three elements around which they hoped to find wide common ground: nuclear safety, food security and humanitarian issues.
“I’m here to stand with Ukraine and leaders from around the world in support of a just and lasting peace,” Harris said at the start of a meeting with Zelenskyy before the larger summit. “The United States is committed to helping Ukraine rebuild.”
However, as the summit opened, with world leaders taking turns speaking, Russia’s absence quickly emerged as a flashpoint. Prince Faisal bin Farhan, foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, told the gathering at the Bürgenstock resort, near Lucerne, that “any credible process will require Russia’s participation.”
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