Summit backs Ukraine on territory, but some nations abstain

Ukraine has won the support of an international summit for its territorial integrity and part of its vision for ending Russia’s invasion, but major nations, including India, Brazil and South Africa, declined to sign up.

A joint statement signed on Sunday by 80 out of the 92 countries attending the “Summit on Peace in Ukraine” in Switzerland said “respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states” would “serve as a basis” for resolving the conflict with Russia.

The document also endorsed three points from Ukraine’s previously published 10-point peace plan, covering food exports, nuclear security and return of all Ukrainians held by Russia — items that were chosen to appeal to developing nations that have not previously supported Kyiv.

But while the summit turnout looked impressive for Ukraine, the decision by critical nations — which also included Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — not to back the document reflected Russia’s continuing international economic power and influence.

Russia was not invited to the gathering. China, the main backer of Russia’s war economy, declined to attend, citing Moscow’s absence.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a press conference at the end of the summit that there would be “no lasting peace without territorial integrity” and that Ukraine was open to states joining the communiqué later as long as they “share the same values in deeds and words”.

In an announcement on the eve of the two-day summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin set out his most specific conditions yet for ending the war. The conditions included Ukraine ceding four regions, including large areas currently not under Moscow’s control, and abandoning its ambitions of joining the Nato alliance.

Ukraine immediately rejected his proposal and Zelenskyy said in opening remarks to the summit that Moscow was not present because “if Russia was interested in peace, there would be no war”.

US vice-president Kamala Harris, who attended the gathering instead of President Joe Biden, said Putin was “not calling for negotiations, he is calling for surrender”.

The document from the Ukraine summit called for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, currently occupied by Russia, to be operated safely “under the full sovereign control of Ukraine”. It also called for a full exchange of prisoners of war and return of Ukrainians deported to Russia. And it said food security “must not be weaponised”, with Ukrainian food exports to be “securely and freely provided”.

It remains unclear how Ukraine intends to win backing for the remaining seven points of its peace plan, which cover issues including the withdrawal of Russian troops, reparations and war crime prosecutions.

Ukraine has said it wants to present the plan to a Russian representative at a second and final summit, preparations for which Zelenskyy said would take “months, not years”.

“If Russia is at the second summit, it shows that it wants peace . . . it can start [negotiations] even tomorrow, if it withdraws its troops from our territory,” he told the press conference.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas cited past agreements Moscow made on Ukraine to warn summit attendees that UN charter principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity could not be forgotten. 

“There was hope [in 2014] that territorial concessions to the aggressor would bring peace. History has proven that giving up territory for peace has often led and will lead to further aggression,” Kallas said.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former stand-in president for Vladimir Putin and now his deputy on Russia’s security council, dismissed the summit as a Swiss “barnyard” and a “depressing shitshow that burns taxpayers money”.

“None of the participants in the ‘peace forum’ know what they are doing there and what their role is,” Medvedev said.