The president of Ukraine said that he was in favor of the participation of Russian representatives in the next summit which should be held within the year. Professor Maurizio Simoncelli, vice-president of the Institute for International Research on Disarmament Archives (IRIAD): “For a peace conference the presence of both parties is essential”. Russia’s reaction to Kiev’s opening is cautious.
Gianmarco Murroni and Silvia Giovanrosa – Vatican City
Having Russia sit at the table of a peace summit: this is the proposal that comes from the president of Ukraine Zelensky who aims to organize the negotiating summit in November. Close, therefore, to the vote in the United States that will show who will be the leader of the White House for the next 4 years. And if the Americans choose Donald Trump, “Kyiv is not worried”, because “most of the Republicans support us”, declared the leader of Ukraine.
International appointments
There will be three events before the Peace Conference that will be open to Russia: between July and August the first meeting on energy security will take place in Doha, Qatar. In August, a conversation in Türkiye on freedom of navigation and food safety. Finally, in September, the issue of the exchange of prisoners of war will be addressed in Canada. If there are results from these three appointments, the Ukrainian leader said, it will be possible to proceed with the development of a ten-point peace plan and start preparing “for the second summit in which I think the representatives of Russia should participate “.
Peace conference
For the next peace summit to produce results, both parties involved in the conflict must sit at the negotiating table. The IS Professor Maurizio Simoncelli, vice-president of the International Research Institute for Research on the Disarmament Archive, that this is a basic condition for reaching an agreement between Russia and Ukraine. In addition, it would be desirable for a third country to be present at the conference, such as Turkey or China, to act as an intermediary between the competitors, emphasizes Simoncelli. Unfortunately, according to the expert, neither the West nor NATO, nor even the United States, can play this role. According to the professor, the first peace summit wanted by the president of Ukraine, which was held in Switzerland last June, did not bring concrete results precisely because of Russia’s absence.
Reaction in Moscow
The Kremlin responded coldly to Zelensky’s proposal: “We do not understand what the term peace summit means,” said Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov. According to Professor Simoncelli, it is too early to consider this Russian response as a denial. The Kremlin, the vice-president of Archivio Disarmo, always follows an ambiguous position: on the one hand he says that he is in favor of negotiations, on the other hand he is still rooted in his positions. “And invited to a comparison, we have to see what will happen” concludes the professor.
Just peace
The President of Brazil Lula and the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, who are visiting Brazil, also spoke about Ukraine: “We completely agreed that the world needs peace. It is a common goal, widespread among people and we agreed on the importance of working to achieve a peace that can only be a just peace, so that it is lasting and therefore based on international law, on the respect of Other states and on consideration. of the rules of the UN”, said Mattarella. “Respect for the equal dignity of all States is an indispensable canon in international politics”, the Italian Head of State reiterated. For the Head of State of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, ” the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza show that abandoning dialogue and diplomacy has dire consequences.”
Conflict in Ukraine
Meanwhile, on the ground, fighting continues: for the past 24 hours, skirmishes have continued around Kharkiv, where, however, the northern front, Zelensky said, has become an “insurmountable obstacle” for the Russians. The heaviest clashes were recorded in the Donetsk region: repelled about twenty attacks towards Pokrovsky, according to what Kiev Defense said. Overnight, Ukrainian forces announced an air alert in most regions of the country.