Switzerland’s Ukraine summit reveals split visions for future peace settlement As Western powers and non-Western countries meet at a major summit in Switzerland to find a consensus on how to end Russia’s war with Ukraine, the talks also show that Kyiv might face increasing calls for a “difficult compromise.” World leaders gathered this weekend at the Alpine mountaintop resort of Bürgenstock to bolster international support for ending Russia’s war on Ukraine. Kyiv’s Western allies are trying to use the summit to win a forceful condemnation of the invasion, invoking the UN Charter to safeguard the Ukrainian territorial integrity, and rejecting Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s demands for parts of Ukraine as a condition for peace. Several Western leaders came straight from a G7 summit in southern Italy the day earlier, where they had agreed on more means to financially support Ukraine. “One thing is clear in this conflict: There is an aggressor, which is Putin, and there is a victim, which is the Ukrainian people,” Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a Saturday session. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the participation of more than 100 countries as a show of international support for his war-torn country, even though key Global South countries were absent and some European leaders said a broader outreach was needed to build a lasting peace plan. The overall picture has two contrasting positions: On the one side, the Russian leader in the Kremlin is trying to dictate absurd terms of peace, on the other, the Ukrainian leader is cajoling everyone else into accepting a Ukraine-led peace plan. But while the summit created powerful visuals supporting Kyiv’s and the West’s cause, it also exposed a significant contrast between the West and ‘the rest’. “It’s like we’re in a Western echo chamber (…) all Western European countries, the US, we agree on what we want to happen with Ukraine,” Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said. “But that alone is not enough,” he added. The contrast was perhaps the most evident on two occasions where non-Western leaders voiced their understanding of Ukraine’s situation but cautioned for a more realistic approach. “Kenya’s position is unwavering – Russia’s aggression against the country is unjust, unjustified, and is a violation of international law,” Kenyan President William Rutto told participants. But this and any future forum “should not be a meeting of only friends and there should be both friends and enemies here,” Rutto said. He added that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “illegal”, but the unilateral use of windfall profits from Russian frozen assets pursued by the West “is equally illegal”. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the kingdom was ready to assist the peace process, but warned that a viable settlement would hinge on a “difficult compromise”. Some Western and Ukrainian diplomats involved in the summit talks said they feared that calls for Russia to be at the table would only get stronger over time while expectations for a ‘compromise’ on Ukraine’s side could rise. One central ambition of the Swiss and Ukrainian co-organisers is to announce on Sunday which country would host a follow-up summit, meant to build on this one. It also remains to be seen how many participating countries will actually back a final joint declaration. | 