Ouagadougou: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that he would make peace proposals to Russia once they have been approved by the international community. ‘When the action plan is on the table, accepted by all and transparent to the people, then it will be communicated to the representatives of Russia, so that we can truly end the war,’ he told the opening of the first peace summit in Ukraine, which is being held this weekend in Switzerland, but without Russia.
American Vice President Kamala Harris, for her part, reiterated the United States’ firm commitment to Ukraine.
‘If the world does not react when an aggressor invades his neighbor, other aggressors will undoubtedly become emboldened,’ she declared in front of the hundred countries and organizations meeting in Switzerland until Sunday to make a first draft of a peace plan.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘put forward a proposal. But we must tell the truth: he is not calling for negotiations, he is calling for the surren
der’ of Ukraine.
Kenyan President William Ruto was delighted that ‘for the first time we are meeting to talk about peace in Ukraine, rather than the war in Ukraine’.
‘A commitment to peace makes certain fundamental concessions inevitable,’ he stressed, believing that to succeed in making peace there must be a ‘meeting between friends and enemies.’
‘Russia must be at the table,’ he insisted. An antiphon taken up by the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs.
‘We believe it is important that the international community encourages any progress towards serial negotiations, which will require difficult compromises as part of a road map leading to peace,’ Prince Faisal bin Farhane said.
‘Any credible process will require Russia’s participation,’ he insisted.
As for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he stressed that ‘peace is not just the absence of war’ and he rejected the notion of ‘new reality’ put forward by the Kremlin, which would ratify the control of 20% of the Ukrainian territory.
‘An immediate ceasefire wit
hout serious negotiations’ would only lead to ‘another frozen conflict’.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also warned that “freezing the conflict” is not a solution but a “recipe for future wars of aggression.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for ‘defining the principles of a just and lasting peace based on international law and the United Nations Charter’.
‘This is the path forward to achieve a permanent cessation of hostilities,’ he said.
Source: Burkina Information Agency