The Kremlin on Tuesday responded cautiously to what appeared to be an invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to a future peace summit, saying Russia first needed to understand what Kyiv meant before attending the talks.
Zelenskiy said Monday that Russia “should be represented” at the second summit on the Ukraine conflict, a change of stance from Kiev’s exclusion of Moscow from a high-level peace meeting in Switzerland last month.
“The first peace summit was not a peace summit at all, so maybe we first need to understand the meaning of Zelensky’s remarks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Zvezda television in response to Zelensky’s comments.
Leaders and senior officials from more than 90 countries met in the Swiss mountain resort of Bürgenstock in June for the first summit, but Russia denounced it as a waste of time.
Russia and Ukraine have starkly different views on the terms of a peace agreement to end more than two years of conflict.
Moscow insists it must retain all of the territory it currently occupies – about 20 percent of the country – while Kiev demands that all Russian troops be withdrawn from Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, including the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
– “I’m not worried” –
Washington said on Monday it supported Ukraine’s decision to invite Russia to a second summit but expressed doubts about whether Moscow was ready for talks.
“If they want to invite Russia to the summit, of course we support that,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“We have always supported a ready diplomacy on the part of Ukraine, but until now it has not been clear whether the Kremlin is ready for real diplomacy,” he said.
Ahead of the summit last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signalled his openness to negotiations, saying he would announce a ceasefire immediately if Kiev effectively surrendered territory that Moscow claimed as its own.
Zelenskiy denounced Putin’s demands as a territorial “ultimatum” reminiscent of those issued by Adolf Hitler, and Ukraine’s Western backers, including the United States, responded with contempt.
But concerns are growing in Kiev about the conflict’s longer-term trajectory, given Russia’s recent battlefield victories and Donald Trump’s likely victory in November’s US presidential election.
Zelenskiy said Monday he was “not worried” about a possible Trump victory and said he still expected support from the United States, Ukraine’s largest financial and military donor.
But the Republican candidate has suggested he would bring about a quick end to the conflict if he were returned to office, a promise that Kiev fears would mean it would have to negotiate with Moscow from a position of weakness.
Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center, said Russia has no incentive to take part in the diplomatic conference because it is making progress on that front, albeit slowly.
“Russia will try to use this opportunity as long as it exists. These statements from Ukraine are unlikely to lead to any real diplomatic change,” he told AFP.
Bar/JM
