Ukraine updates: World leaders attend Swiss peace summit

The Swiss-hosted summit gathering more than 90 countries for talks on how to bring peace to Ukraine was "significant" — despite some African, Asian and Latin American leaders steering clear, Ireland's Prime Minister Simon Harris told DW.

Ukraine has been on a diplomatic mission to rally support for the two-day talks in the Swiss alps. Kyiv accuses Moscow — which was not invited — of trying to derail the summit by pressuring countries not to attend.

Switzerland says invitations were sent to more than 160 heads of state or government and 57 agreed to take part — including the leaders of Kenya, Ghana, Argentina and Colombia. Dozens of other nations including diplomatic heavyweights South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia opted to send diplomats instead of leaders, while India sent a junior minister. Russia ally China refused to participate.

"While some countries have chosen not to be here this weekend for a variety of different reasons, I think so many have decided to come. And I'd imagine many who haven't decided on this occasion will be watching closely to see what progress we can make over the weekend," Irish Prime Minister Harris told DW on the sidelines of the talks. 

"It is definitely the largest and most senior gathering of countries across the world to talk about how we move to peace in Ukraine since the outbreak of the war. That in itself is significant."

On the eve of the summit, Moscow announced its own vision for peace, demanding Ukraine hand over large swathes of its territory and abandon its aspirations to join the western military alliance NATO.

"I don't know what it is. And I don't particularly care for what it is," Harris said of the plan. "And I don't think [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is in any position to be setting preconditions." 

"The reality is that any peace settlement, any peace process, has to be in line with international law. And all international law respects the territorial integrity of a country," he added.

During the peace summit in Switzerland, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has praised Ukraine's resistance in the face of Russia's aggression.

"The Ukrainian people did not ask for this fight, but in defending their country, their valor, and their sacrifice, were truly humbling to witness," Sunak said.

Sunak also said Russia was "threatened" by the summit.

Russian President Vladimir "Putin has no interest in a genuine peace. He has launched a systematic campaign against this very summit, ordering countries to stay away," according to the UK leader.

The conservative prime minister also said that "unconditional surrender of the Kyiv regime," as demanded by the Kremlin, "will never happen."

"Instead, we must set out the principles for a just and lasting peace based on international law and the UN Charter," he said. "That is the path to the permanent cessation of hostilities, showing that we will always protect the right of all nations to determine their future."

Addressing the delegates at the Bürgenstock summit, French President Emmanuel Macron said more countries should take part in the peace process aimed at ending the war.

The French president also praised the fact that delegates from all over the world were attending the conference in Switzerland.

Macron also said that attendees of the summit wanted a "sustainable peace, meaning a peace respecting international rule, and restoring Ukraine and its sovereignty."

However, "such a peace cannot be a Ukrainian capitulation," according to Macron.

"I suggest that, in parallel, we build, altogether, a followup, to enlarge the circle of countries joining our efforts, to avoid the big divide of the world … adding countries and not dividing the circle," Macron said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said his country had managed to leverage "our positive relations … with both sides" — Russia and Ukraine — in the efforts to resolve the crisis.

Speaking at the Swiss summit, the Saudi diplomat also warned that peace talks would include "difficult compromise."

"We believe it is important that the international community encourage any steps towards serious negotiations, which would require difficult compromise, as part of a roadmap that leads to peace. "

"And here it is essential to emphasize that any credible process would need Russia's participation," he said.

Speaking at the Swiss summit, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that the impact of the Ukraine war stretches far beyond Europe, endangering food and energy security and bringing the threat of a nuclear catastrophe back into focus.

Scholz also said that Russia could end the war at any time.

"To date, Russia has refused to heed our collective call for peace on the basis of international law and the UN Charter," he said.

"It is true, peace in Ukraine cannot be achieved without involving Russia, but let us not forget that, as we speak, Russia continues to relentlessly wage its brutal war."

The German chancellor also noted that "peace is more than the absence of war" and warned against "another frozen conflict."

"An immediate cease-fire without serious negotiations, without a roadmap towards a just and lasting peace, merely on the basis of so-called new realities, would only legitimize Russia's illegal land grab," he said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin's cease-fire proposal as nothing more than "propaganda."

Putin said Friday that Russia stop its war and enter peace talks if Ukraine withdrew its forces from four Ukrainian regions annexed by Moscow. He also said Kyiv would need to relinquish any ambitions of joining NATO for peace to be achieved.

It "seems to me more like a propaganda move than a real one," Meloni said as she wrapped up the G7 summit in Italy.

On Thursday, the G7 agreed to use frozen Russian assets to raise $50 billion (€46 billion) for Ukraine. 

Crucial details still need to be ironed out, including who would provide the funding and how they would share the risk in case the loan is not repaid.

Meloni said Saturday that the United States, Canada, Britain and "probably" Japan will contribute to the loan, but not European Union countries.

Speaking at the start of the two-day Ukraine summit in Switzerland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he hoped the meeting would help bring about an equitable end to the conflict in his country.  

"I believe that we will witness history being made here at the summit," Zelenskyy said.

"May a just peace be established as soon as possible," he added.

The summit at the Bürgenstock luxury resort is being attended by 100 countries and global institutions. More than 50 heads of state and government are among the attendees.

Swiss President Viola Amherd said there were also plans for future summits in the works, with the idea being to eventually involve Russia.

"We will not be able to negotiate or even proclaim peace for Ukraine here on the Bürgenstock, but we wish to inspire a process for a just and lasting peace, and we wish to take concrete steps in this direction," she said.

"We can prepare the ground for direct talks between the warring parties: that is what we are here for."

Twenty-five athletes from Russia and Belarus have so far been granted clearance to compete as neutrals in the Paris Olympics from July 26 to August 11.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently said it expected a maximum of around 50 Russians and 28 Belarusians to be admitted to Paris under a neutral flag.

 As a comparison, 330 Russians and 104 Belarusians took part in the last Games in Tokyo in 2021.

To be eligible to compete this year, athletes from both countries must not have actively shown support for Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in which Belarus is complicit.

They are also not allowed to have any connection to the army or security forces.

As an additional condition, the IOC requires all athletes to make a written commitment to the Olympic Charter and thus also to the "peace mission of the Olympic Movement."

Russian and Belarusian athletes will still be banned from team sports and will also not be part of the opening ceremony.

US Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that Washington will give more than $1.5 billion (€1.4 billion) to help Ukraine as it defends itself against the Russian invasion.

The announcement was made as Harris attended the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland. 

According to a White House statement, the money, released through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department, will include hundreds of millions in funding for energy assistance, including the repair of energy infrastructure damaged during the conflict.

More than $379 million will go toward humanitarian assistance "to help address urgent needs of refugees, internally displaced persons, and conflict-affected communities impacted by Russia’s brutal war against the Ukrainian people," the statement said.

According to the statement, the United States has given more than $3.2 billion in humanitarian assistance funding and nearly $1.5 billion to help the recovery of the energy sector since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has kept expectations low for the peace summit on Ukraine, stressing that the talks would "lay the foundations" for further negotiations. 

"And then it will also be important that Russia is involved," Scholz told ZDF television in an interview on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy, shortly before leaving for Switzerland on Saturday.

"This is a diplomatic seedling that we are watering so that it can grow," he said. 

Scholz once again urged Moscow's allies, including China, to "exert their influence" on Russia.  China is not participating in the conference. 

The chancellor also said the G7 heads of state had not discussed Russian President Vladimir Putin's peace proposals for the war in Ukraine. 

"Everyone knows that this proposal wasn't meant seriously, but had something to do with the peace conference in Switzerland," Scholz told ZDF.

A Canadian Navy patrol ship arrived in Havana on Friday, several hours after the US announced a fast-attack submarine had docked at its Guantanamo naval base in Cuba.

Both vessels arrived after Russian warships sailed into the island earlier in the week for planned military drills.

The HMCS Margaret Brooke anchored in Havana on its way back from "a successful deployment in the Caribbean basin," the Royal Canadian Navy said in a statement on Facebook.

It "will conduct a port visit to Havana from June 14 to 17, 2024, in recognition of the long-standing bilateral relationship between Canada and Cuba," it said.

US nuclear-powered submarine USS Helena arrived in Cuba on Thursday, the Pentagon said. 

A day earlier a Russian nuclear sub, the Kazan, also docked on the island. Cuba said the vessel was not carrying nuclear weapons. It was accompanied by the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, an oil tanker and a salvage tug.

The presence of Russian, Canadian and US vessels on the Communist-run island nation was a reminder of old Cold War tensions and strained ties between Russia and the West over the Ukraine war.

However, both Washington and Havana have said the Russian warships pose no threat to the region. Russia has also characterized the arrival of its vessels in allied Cuba as routine.

A total of six people were killed in Ukrainian attacks on Russia's Belgorod region on Friday, Russian officials said.

The bodies of four people were recovered from the debris of a multistory residential building that was struck by Ukrainian shelling in the region's border town of Shebekino, Russia's Emergencies Ministry said. 

The ministry's Telegram channel posted pictures of a crane clearing the rubble, showing the building's shattered facade and a collapsed stairwell.

Separately, Belgorod's regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a Ukrainian drone had hit a car in a village near Shebekino, leaving the driver dead.

Gladkov also said a woman was killed after her home was struck by rocket fire in the western village of Oktyabrsky.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the strike, but it has frequently carried out attacks in Belgorod and other Russian border regions in recent months.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cited attacks on Belgorod as grounds for last month's cross-border incursion into Ukraine's Kharkiv region.

US Vice President Kamala Harris is attending the Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland over the weekend. 

Harris is scheduled to arrive for the international talks at midday on Saturday.

She will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and address the summit's plenary session.

Harris is standing in for President Joe Biden at the event.

Biden has spent the last two days participating in the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy and is returning to the US to attend a fundraiser for his reelection campaign in Los Angeles.

The ultra-exclusive Bürgenstock Resort in the Swiss village of Obbürgen was doing the final preparations to host a peace summit on Saturday as world leaders were set to discuss what a possible road map to peace in Ukraine could look like.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived on Friday for the talks, where he will be joined by more than 50 other heads of state, but significantly not any representatives from Russia.

"There will be two days of active work with countries from all parts of the world, with different nations that are nonetheless united by a common goal of bringing a just and lasting peace in Ukraine closer," Zelenskyy wrote on X.

The Ukrainian leader said talks will focus on the issues of nuclear safety, food security and the return of prisoners of war and Ukrainian children taken to Russian-controlled territory.

Moscow had previously announced it was not interested in participating and was subsequently frozen out of the talks.

The two sides have not held direct talks since the first weeks of the war.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the summit a "trick to distract everyone".

He said Russia would agree to a cease-fire and begin peace talks "immediately" if Ukraine pulled its soldiers out of the east and south and gave up its NATO membership bid.

Ukraine and the United States have rejected Putin's hard-line conditions.

In the last few weeks, Zelenskyy has embarked on a whirlwind diplomatic tour to shore up support and attendance for the conference, ending with his participation in the G7 summit in Italy. 

US President Joe Biden, who signed a 10-year security deal with Zelenskyy on Thursday, is sending Vice President Kamala Harris in his stead. The other G7 leaders are set to attend.

Nevertheless, government circles in Germany have warned against "exaggerated expectations" as Moscow appears adamant that it can outlast Ukraine and its Western backers.

dvv/ab (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)