Ukraine's peace summit lacks clout as Russia, China and others stay away

Ukraine's leadership has been talking about this weekend's peace summit in Switzerland for months, desperately trying to drum up international enthusiasm for — and investment in — Kyiv's peace plan.

The attempt to corral as many countries as possible to participate in the event has worked to a certain extent, with around 90 states and organizations set to attend the Summit on Peace in Ukraine (or Global Peace Summit, as Ukraine calls it) on June 15-16 in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock. In total, 160 countries were invited to the summit.

Crucially, however, Russia won't be attending (it wasn't invited after flagging, very publicly, that it would not participate), nor will influential countries like China and Saudi Arabia, calling into question how effective the summit can be at creating the foundations for a peace process.

Other nations have decided against sending representatives or are only sending junior officials to the summit. Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey — nations that enjoy cordial relations with Russia — have not yet confirmed what delegation they will send to the summit, if any.

The final list of participants will be released Friday and could change in the last moments amid a report that the number of attendees has fallen in recent days.

In any case, the summit's Swiss organizers said earlier this week that around half of the confirmed participants are from Europe, with the remainder from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

Russia has repeatedly slammed the gathering, saying a peace summit without its participation is meaningless. China, meanwhile, said it did not want to attend a conference that did not have equal participation from both opposing parties. Other absentees have cited similar