Crucially limited buy-in to Ukraine peace summit

The “Summit on Peace in Ukraine”, hosted by Switzerland this weekend, is not a peace conference in the usual sense. Russia, which has dismissed it as irrelevant, won’t participate. And any summit aimed at ending the war can’t produce a final settlement without Russia’s involvement.

Rather, the summit stems from a push by Ukraine to build wider support for “a path towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.” Specifically, it wants to build consensus around some basic principles for a future settlement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ten-point “peace formula”, first set out in November 2022, advocates some unobjectionable ideas. It also highlights the damage Russia’s invasion has inflicted on Ukraine, along with the dangers Russia poses to other countries.

The plan includes:

1. nuclear safety (underlining the risks posed by Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as Russian nuclear saber-rattling)
2. food security (addressing the disruption of global food supplies caused by the invasion and the need for freedom of navigation from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports)
3. energy security (highlighting Russia’s attacks crippling Ukraine’s energy infrastructure)
4. the release of all Ukrainian prisoners and return of Ukrainian children deported to Russia (the subject of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court against President Vladimir Putin)
5. the restoration of Ukrainian territory to its pre-2014, internationally recognized borders
6. the full withdrawal of Russian military forces
7. justice under international law, including a special tribunal to prosecute alleged war crimes and compensation for damage caused to Ukraine
8. addressing environmental destruction caused by the war
9. security guarantees for