The peace talks held in Switzerland arouse more concern than hope, says Docent of Military Sciences Ilmari Käihkö.
12.6. 19:37•Updated 12.6. 22:07
Ukraine is hoping for visibility and diplomatic support from the peace conference to be organized in Switzerland next weekend. Docent of Military Sciences Ilmari Käihkö The Swedish National Defense University lists why the peace meeting is not only a good thing.
1. China will not participate, the United States will represent without a president
Käihkö considers it a big setback that one of the big countries, China, is not participating in the meeting. China has also pressured other countries not to participate, which negatively affects the peace process.
The United States, on the other hand, is represented by the president Joe Biden instead of the vice president Terrible Harris.
– It is a loss of prestige for Ukraine that the United States does not consider the opportunity so important that they would send the president.
The invitation list for the meeting also includes countries that are not the main supporters of Ukraine. Käihkö feels the support of third countries is contradictory, because they have not yet chosen their side. Some countries assess which of the war parties is winning, in which case they may just be left to monitor the situation.
Russia is not among the countries invited to the meeting.
2. The agenda of the meeting is limited
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi presented a ten-point peace plan in 2022, which also includes holding Russia accountable for war crimes.
According to information received by Käihkö, the peace meeting would only deal with three points of Ukraine’s peace plan: nuclear security, food security and the release of prisoners.
According to Käihkö, these are the simplest issues out of ten and would only take part of Ukraine’s agenda forward.
– Media information says that Russia will be included in discussing these three issues. So Russia would not have to do anything, but it could possibly get involved in the future peace process. This is not necessarily a good thing for Ukraine.
3. The chance of peace is weak
Käihkö considers it problematic that earlier discussions about peace could serve as the basis of the peace process. In this way, Ukraine’s own peace proposal would be on the same line as, for example, China’s pro-Russia proposal.
– In Ukraine, we are worried that the statement of the meeting is against the interests of Ukraine and should not be signed.
Last year, Zelenskyi talked about the year of victory. However, according to Käihkö, credit is shaky. Ukraine fears that over time attention to the war has decreased, and the country will not be able to continue as it is without support. Even the peace conference arouses more concern than hope among some Ukrainians.
– The fear is that at the meeting we will walk into a trap and do something irreversible.
The subject was discussed in the A-studio on Wednesday evening. You can watch the broadcast on Areena.