Ukraine aims for peace summit with UN involvement by end of February

Ukraine is looking to hold a peace summit by the end of February with the involvement of the United Nations and Secretary-General António Guterres, according to Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Kuleba said that Russia could only be invited to such a summit if the country faced a war crimes tribunal first.

“The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit, because this is not about making a favor to a certain country. This is really about bringing everyone on board,” he said.

Kuleba also said that Ukraine will do whatever it can to win the war in 2023, adding that diplomacy always plays an important role.

On Dec. 12, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine planned to initiate a summit to implement the Ukrainian peace formula in 2023.

In mid-November, Zelensky presented a 10-point peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The plan envisages preventing ecocide in Ukraine, punishing those responsible for war crimes, withdrawing all Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and the release of all prisoners of war and deportees. The proposals also call for ensuring energy security, food security, and nuclear safety.

The Kremlin dismissed the proposal by ruling out withdrawal from Ukraine by the end of 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Dec. 13 that Kyiv needs to accept new territorial “realities,” which include Moscow’s illegal claims of “annexation” of four Ukrainian regions – Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson oblasts.

Ukraine has made it clear that it will not enter into talks with Russia unless the latter returns all occupied territories, including the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.