A third session of talks supported by Ukraine to put an end to the Russian invasion begins this Saturday in Malta with representatives from around fifty countries, in the absence of Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes the two-day meeting, which follows similar meetings this summer in Jeddah and Copenhagen, will build support for his 10-point plan to end the war triggered by the Russian invasion of February 2022.
Diplomatic advisers from around fifty countries as well as international institutions are expected to participate, more than the approximately 40 nations who took part in the Saudi summit in August. “This meeting is a strong signal that unity is preserved around Ukraine,” said the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriy Iermak.
Zelensky is pushing his ten-point peace plan, which calls for Russia to withdraw all its troops outside Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. But Russia – which proclaimed the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia in September 2022 and that of Crimea in 2014 – has rejected any settlement that would involve ceding these territories.