Ukraine Peace Formula: Zelensky to Meet in Switzerland

Zelenskyi Announces Peace Talks in Switzerland

Mon, Dec 11th 2023

By Keystone-SDA and @TheSwissTimes – This article was first posted on The Swiss Times without edits via our Breaking News RSS feed page, and on our Telegram channel.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced talks in Switzerland in January 2024 on a peace plan he has been promoting. The meeting will take place the day before the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The security advisors of several countries are to take part in the meeting on January 14, as the Swiss Foreign Ministry informed the Keystone-SDA news agency on Monday in response to an inquiry. The topic is the so-called Ukrainian peace formula with a ten-point plan for an end to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

Photo of Zelensky shaking hands with Berset — Swiss President Berset, left, talks to Volodymyr Zelensky, at the European Political Community Summit in Granada, Spain, October 2023. (KEYSTONE/Peter Klaunzer)

The “Tages-Anzeiger” was the first to report on the announcement of the talks. Selenskyj announced the plans on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.

Fourth major conference of this kind

The meeting in Davos is the fourth major international Ukraine meeting for a possible future peace summit to end the Russian war of aggression. Previously, meetings were held in Copenhagen, Jeddah and Malta. Around 70 countries from all continents as well as the European Union (EU) and the UN took part in Malta in October. Russia was not invited.

It was initially unclear whether Zelensky would come to Switzerland. He could combine participation in the Ukraine talks with a visit to the World Economic Forum. However, Zelensky did not take part in the meeting in Malta.

Among other things, the Ukrainian peace plan provides for the immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops from all occupied territories, including Crimea. In addition, all prisoners of war are to be released. Legal responsibility of Russian politicians and military personnel for the war of aggression is also part of the plan. Russia had previously rejected the peace formula as “unrealistic”.

Invitations will be sent out soon

Ukraine is organizing the meeting in Switzerland together with the Swiss Confederation. The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) stated that Switzerland supports this initiative as it would any project that could serve as a basis for a negotiation process with the aim of achieving lasting peace.

Preparations for the meeting in Davos are still underway, the FDFA also wrote. The invitations are to be sent out soon. The organizers will announce further details, such as the list of participants, at a later date.

Switzerland has already hosted a conference on Ukraine. In summer 2022, talks were held in Lugano TI on the reconstruction of the country. 59 states and international organizations agreed on key parameters there.

Unspoken, is who Zelensky will negotiate a peace plan with. It is unclear if the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, or his proxy will attend, without which talks would be completely meaningless.

To this date, there has been no sign that Russia is willing to negotiate, and recent events along the front starting with the collapse of the Ukraine offensive make a Russian willingness to talk unlikely. Indeed, articles such as this one highlight the likely continuation of hostilities with Ukraine increasingly on the back foot. The outlines of the actual peace plan are also unclear from the reading of various reports including this one, but the likeliest seen by The Swiss Times is Zelensky’s old proposal from the 2022 G20 summit in Bali. – ed

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Zelenskyi Announces Peace Talks in Switzerland

Zelenskyi Announces Peace Talks in Switzerland

Fourth major conference of this kind

Invitations will be sent out soon

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