Ukraine's Zelensky fails to achieve key objectives at Swiss peace summit

Leaders and senior representatives from almost 80 countries have called for the "territorial integrity" of Ukraine to be the basis for any peace agreement to end Russia's two-year invasion.

- Jonathan Eyal

Speaking on June 16 at the end of a two-day peace summit in Switzerland, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the document adopted by the participants as the "first step towards peace" in his country.

However, the reality is that the summit failed to achieve Mr Zelensky's key diplomatic objectives and also did not galvanise international support for Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky first touted the possibility of a peace conference for Ukraine in January when he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a traditional yearly get-together of the world's top business people and politicians.

Mr Zelensky knew only too well that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not attend such a peace summit. This is partly because the Russians have always preferred to deal directly with the Ukrainians rather than as part of an international conference where Russia's influence is diluted, and partly because the Russian military appears to have the upper hand in the current fighting, and therefore has little incentive to stop the war.

Still, the Ukrainian leader pushed to hold a peace summit because he had two other priorities in mind.

The first is Ukraine's need to dispel accusations that it refuses to contemplate an end to the current bloodshed, by far the worst in Europe since World War II. Mr Zelensky wanted to prove that, far from running away from negotiated solutions, Ukraine welcomes them, provided they are - as the Ukrainian leader puts it in accordance with international law.