Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be willing to hold a second peace summit, with Russia present this time, according to a leak from a Ukrainian official, Bloomberg has reported.
This meeting would take place before the US presidential elections in November.
Antonio Alonso, International Relations professor at the CEU-San Pablo University in Madrid, described the scenario as “uncertain”.
” NATO’s Washington summit failed to live up to expectations by sending mixed messages,” he said.
“On the one hand you send the message that you don’t want a war with Russia, but at the same time you give the green light to the use of NATO weapons on Russian territory.
“You criticise the negotiations and at the same time you want to have negotiations,” he added.
If it comes to pass, a three-party meeting would between Moscow, Kyiv and Beijing would take place in October.
Alonso said the leaked news of the possibility might represent “a masterstroke by the [US] Democrats to avoid being overtaken by the Republican opposition and to gain the upper hand before the November elections”.
Any such meeting would come after the peace summit in Switzerland on June 16. Then, the Ukrainian Executive succeeded in bringing together up to 90 representatives of countries and organisations in Bürgenstock to discuss a peace proposal drafted by the Ukrainian presidential team.
In the end, a final agreed document was not endorsed by major nations including India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
China, a major world player and ally of Russia, declined attending on the grounds that Moscow was not represented at the summit.
Under the new proposal, with the Russians likely to be present, the outcome may be different.
On the Russian side, there is absolute silence. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not once mentioned a ceasefire, but he has offered peace plans on several occasions.
British newspaper The Daily Mail reported on July 3 a new Russian peace plan had been presented to the US offering to share the Crimea region with Ukraine.
“What Putin wants is for a new Westphalian-style European peace treaty to take shape,” said an anonymous intelligence source.
“The Russians have realised that Europe is entirely dependent on the US to make decisions and is counting on the fall of governments that will give way to more populist versions that favour them,” the source said.
So far, the US has not responded to Putin’s peace offer. Given that “NATO has de facto replaced the Ukrainian state”, Alonso noted, “it would not be impossible that this proposal could come from certain US sectors”.
He expressed surprise at the apparent standpoint of attitude of the military alliance in this conflict. “In the rest of the world, the EU and NATO have always forced the parties in conflict to negotiate, except in Ukraine where it has pushed one side against the other,” he said.
Poland has reacted with frustration after Hungary blocked a payment of around €2 billion in EU funds intended to compensate Warsaw for its military aid to Ukraine over the war with Russia. https://t.co/2AAtvuf6qJ
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 11, 2024
