Zelensky Cancels Fall Peace Summit After 'Victory Plan' Fails To Impress Washington
Germany's national dpa press agency (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) is reporting that Ukraine is scrapping plans for a second international peace summit which was to be held ahead of the US presidential election in November.
"The presidential office led by Andriy Yermak is responsible for preparing the gathering that seeks to bring together government representatives and organizations from around the globe to discuss Zelensky's plan aimed at ending more than two and a half years of war with Russia," the media outlet said.
"Initially, Ukraine had hoped for the second such conference to be held ahead of the November 5 election in the US, which could see the return of Republican Donald Trump to the White House, but an adviser to Yermak said on Tuesday that the plan was no longer feasible," dpa continues.
It had been tentatively scheduled for October 30 and October 31, or also possibly the start of November, but now the Ukraine presidency's office has announced that "The question of a date for the second peace summit will be decided after the thematic conferences have been concluded," in reference to prior smaller conferences.
"The Second Peace Summit will not take place in November," senior Ukrainian presidential aide Darya Zarivna separately confirmed.
The first big conference hosted in Switzerland this past June was attended by about 100 countries, and concluded without the conflict being any closer to moving toward peace talks between Moscow and Kiev. Quite the opposite... since then Russian forces have continued pushing back the Ukrainian army's positions in the east, and pro-Kiev forces have only stepped up drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, including recent attacks in Crimea.
Moscow was invited to neither the summer conference nor the one that was supposed to take place this fall. On this basis the Kremlin has rejected the legitimacy of the talks. China too has said such conferences are futile without representation of the other warring party.
Russia and China have seen Zelensky's efforts as an exercise in giving a rubber stamp to his 'victory plan' which he has promoted in Washington. A key controversial aspect has been that the US and NATO allies must approve long-range strikes deep into Russia using West-supplied arms. That approval has not come, at least publicly.
Hungary and Slovakia are two NATO countries who have lately been vocal against another part of Zelensky's plan: a Ukrainian path to NATO membership. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Sunday vowed Ukraine will never join the military alliance under his wach.
“As long as I am head of the Slovak government, I will direct the MPs that are under my control as chairman of the [ruling Smer] party never to agree to Ukraine's joining NATO,” he said on the weekly "O päť minút dvanásť", as cited in Politico.
Zelensky is apparently canceling his second attempt at a "peace summit," which was scheduled for next month, after the first version failed to include Russia.
— Rachel Blevins (@RachBlevins) October 10, 2024
But the announcement comes as Biden is pulling out of the next Ramstein meeting of NATO cheerleaders for Ukraine...… pic.twitter.com/a4okHRJopA
Russian state media has this week held up the 'peace summit' cancelation as another win for Moscow. "On Tuesday, the White House announced that Biden would not meet Zelensky in Germany as previously scheduled, since he has canceled all of his travel plans due to Hurricane Milton impacting Florida," RT wrote. "According to Ukrainian media, Zelensky and Biden were supposed to discuss the ‘victory plan’ this coming Saturday."
The Kremlin has also in fresh statements sought to emphasize it has received no real signals from the Ukrainian government that it is interested in starting peace talks or achieving ceasefire. Russian forces keep capturing villages and towns in Donetsk, and the defense ministry has said the whole region will soon come under total Russian control any day now.
This also as much of the West's attention is focused on fast-moving events in the Middle East, where Israel and Iran are on the brink of total war, and with Washington backing Tel Aviv. Zelensky has begun to lose the global media spotlight which characterized the opening two years of the war. His presence in D.C. during his recent trip was also generally viewed as a lackluster trip.