The conference on Ukraine held in Switzerland was deemed ineffective even before it began due to the refusal of key world leaders to attend. However, following the statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin, it has been definitively unsuccessful. This opinion was expressed by Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at HSE University and an expert at the Valdai Discussion Club, in an interview with TASS.
"Switzerland has already been significantly losing out recently because key leaders of the global majority refused to participate," - Suslov noted. - "But after today's speech by Putin, the Swiss conference is completely failing. It loses any remaining meaning entirely."
"Today, President Putin proposed a real 'formula for peace,'" - Suslov explained. - "Unlike the West, he offered conditions and a formula for a final political settlement that not only fully resolves the Ukrainian conflict but also creates prerequisites for at least a de-escalation, if not normalization, of Russian-Western relations. This is something entirely absent in the 'peace formula' of [Ukrainian President Vladimyr] Zelensky and the approaches voiced by the West."
According to Suslov, Putin's negotiation proposals might be appealing to the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine. "Importantly, one of the key audiences for Putin's speech today was the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine. The President emphasized that we see the Rada as a potential party for peace negotiations. I wouldn't be surprised if the Verkhovnaya Rada finds the Russian President's proposal a more attractive basis for negotiations than Zelensky's peace formula," the analyst added.
Commenting on NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg's remarks and reflecting on the potential consequences of the West's refusal to negotiate, Suslov stressed that the conditions for resolving the conflict would only worsen for Ukraine in such a scenario. "Apart from losing tens of thousands more people and economic infrastructure, Ukraine would also lose more territories, making the new conditions even more painful. This could indeed lead to the elimination of Ukrainian statehood," Suslov indicated.
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Based on materials from TASS