Ukraine aims for February peace summit as Russian attacks and threats continue
Mike Brest
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Ukraine’s foreign minister is looking for the United Nations to host a peace summit between his government and Russia by the end of February.
Dmytro Kuleba said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should mediate the possible talks, though he noted that Moscow would need to face prosecution for war crimes in an international court before Ukraine would extend an invitation to the Kremlin.
“The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit because this is not about making a favor to a certain country,” he told the Associated Press on Monday. “This is really about bringing everyone on board.”
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Kuleba described Guterres as having “proven himself to be an efficient mediator and an efficient negotiator, and most importantly, as a man of principle and integrity. So we would welcome his active participation.”
U.N. associate spokeswoman Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez told the outlet, “He can only mediate if all parties want him to mediate.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed just days ago that he’s ready to engage in talks to end the war and blamed Kyiv for not taking that step, though Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine, suggesting that any deal is far from imminent.
He said in a state television interview that Russia is “prepared to negotiate some acceptable outcomes with all the participants of this process,” and he argued, “It’s not us who refuse talks, it’s them.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Kuleba’s proposal, telling state media RIA Novosti that they “never followed conditions set by others. Only our own and common sense.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and said after that he could “count on India’s participation in” implementing the 10-point peace formula he presented to world leaders last month at the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
Additionally, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian-state media Tass that Ukraine must meet their required “demilitarization” and “denazification” of the four annexed Ukrainian territories; otherwise, “the Russian army will solve the issue.”
Russian officials have frequently repeated false accusations of Nazism against Ukraine in an attempt to justify its invasion.
Back in September, Russian authorities held four sham referendums in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson that supposedly showed that an overwhelming number of residents supported joining the Russian Federation, though Western leaders universally denounced the processes as illegitimate. In November, Russian forces retreated from Kherson, the only regional capital they had captured during the war.
“As for the duration of the conflict, the ball is on the side of the [Kyiv] regime and Washington that stands behind its back,” Lavrov added. “They may stop senseless resistance at any moment.”
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Russia’s claims to want peace come as its military continues to pummel Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the winter months, leaving millions of civilians to face brutal conditions without electricity, heat, and running water.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that the power situation across the country remains “really difficult,” and he warned that New Year’s Eve could see “maximum damage to the energy system.”
“There is a feeling that [Russians] have not refused to continue shelling our energy system. They are tied to certain dates. I think that the New Year is one of such dates when they will try to cause maximum damage to the energy system,” he said. “The situation is such that it is definitely difficult to plan anything because we do not know the volume of possible future shelling and the amount of damage it will cause to the power system.”