The Ukrainian Foreign Minister granted an interview to the American agency Associated Press on Monday. Dmytro Kuleba sketched the outlines of a future peace summit but set the condition sine qua non for Ukraine to accept Russia’s presence.
A summit for peace in two months, under the supervision of the United Nations and at the very headquarters of the United Nations. The perspective outlined by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, during the interview that he granted on Monday to the American agency Associated Press, seems to bring hope.
However, the condition sine qua non fixed by kyiv to see Russia accept the translation of some of its own before international justice for war crimes before being able to participate in the negotiations and the Russian demands invite more caution than optimism.
Only one condition
While in recent days – and particularly during his visit to the United States – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeated his desire to carry out a “plan for peace”, Dmytro Kuleba has taken up his idea of organizing a summit for this purpose. The Minister of Foreign Affairs even set a deadline: “We are aiming for the end of February, when the war will enter its second year”.
But the Ukrainian executive sets a prerequisite from which it does not intend to derogate. For the Russian invader to have a voice in such an event, it will first have to agree to face war crimes prosecutions in an international tribunal. “They will only be invited to participate on this condition,” said Dmytro Kuleba.
The UN at the center of expectations
The latter nevertheless continued to define the contours of this summit which he calls for. For him, it will have to be held at the UN headquarters. “We believe that the United Nations would be the best place to organize it, because it is not a question of distinguishing this or that country. It is mainly a question of putting everyone around a table and it is not There is no better place for that than the UN,” said Dmytro Kuleba.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs also imagines UN executives as masters of ceremonies, and in particular Antonio Guterres: “The Secretary General of the United Nations was one of the first international officials to whom my president spoke of the summit” . Spinning his praise of the general secretary, Dmytro Kuleba judged: “He has proven himself to be an effective mediator and an effective negotiator, and more importantly, he has shown himself to be a man of principle and honesty”.
Echoing Putin
But distrust of Russia shone through again when the Ukrainian foreign minister told AP about the underlying objective of this hypothetical summit: “We must not allow Russia to manipulating the conclusion of peace because they regularly say that they are ready to negotiate, which is not true since everything they do on the battlefield proves the opposite”.
A projection that echoes Vladimir Putin’s televised address the day before in Russia. The Russian president indeed launched: ““We are ready to negotiate acceptable solutions with all the actors involved, but it depends on them – it is not us who refuse to negotiate, it is them”.
The autocrat again accused Ukraine and its allies of wanting to “divide historic Russia” and said its intention to “preserve the Russian-speaking (Ukrainian) territories invaded by its forces”. Russian claim on Donbass and Crimea that Ukraine does not want to hear about.
Suffice to say that the war should not end immediately. Dmytro Kuleba insisted to journalists: “Any war ends diplomatically. Any war ends because of actions on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. But the balance of what will be won on the battlefield and at the table remains to be found”.
