Mooted second Ukraine peace summit unlikely to go ahead in November

A second Ukrainian peace summit that had been slated for next month is now unlikely to go ahead as planned, Ukrainian newspaper Telegraf reported on Tuesday, citing an advisor to the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Andriy Yermak.

Daria Zarivna, an adviser to Yermak charged with planning the event, told Telegraf that the second peace summit would not take place in November, stressing however that the summit would still go ahead at a later date.

Zarivna clarified her comments on Telegram later on Tuesday, saying that the date for the next peace summit would be determined after “a number” of other conferences due to be held in October to discuss the “peace formula” proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The last such conference would be held on 30–31 October, she added.

Zelensky said in September that Russian representatives should be invited to the second peace summit, adding that his country’s “victory plan” would be the starting point for and the foundation of any talks with Russia.

The Biden administration was unimpressed with the victory plan when Zelensky presented it in the White House during his visit to the US in September, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova immediately poured cold water on peace prospects in September by saying that Russia would not take part in a second peace summit.

The first peace summit, which Moscow was not invited to attend, was held in Switzerland with much fanfare in June, despite a lack of obvious results. Immediately prior to that event, Vladimir Putin had announced his own list of preconditions for peace talks with Ukraine during a briefing with senior Russian Foreign Ministry officials.