LAST UPDATE | 15 Jun 2024

TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS is among the world leaders taking part in a Peace Summit for Ukraine this weekend.

The two-day summit in Switzerland begun today and close to 90 countries are attending, with most delegates at being heads of state.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has joined the gathering at the Burgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne.

Some 100 delegations including European bodies and the United Nations will be on hand.

The summit aims to develop plans for the first steps towards peace in Ukraine, with Russia being notably absent from the conference.

Meanwhile, China is sitting out the conference.

“I believe that we will witness history being made here at the summit. May a just peace be established as soon as possible,” Zelenskyy said as the event began.

“Everything that will be agreed upon at the summit today will be part of the peacemaking process.

“We have succeeded in bringing back to the world the idea that joint efforts can stop war and establish a just peace.”

A spokesperson for Harris said the conference will discuss efforts to initiate a peace process for Ukraine which supports its sovereignty and political independence.

I arrived in Switzerland for the Global Peace Summit. There will be two days of active work with countries from all parts of the world, with different nations that are nonetheless united by a common goal of bringing a just and lasting peace in Ukraine closer.

The Peace Summit… pic.twitter.com/DhS54e1Xk0

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 14, 2024

The spokesperson added that discussions will centre on the need to uphold international law, as well as global concerns like nuclear safety, food security and humanitarian issues.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s summit, Harris said Russia is showing “no genuine interest in efforts for peace”.

He added that Ireland “must vindicate Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence”.

Harris also said that the “simple truth” is that “Russia has illegally invaded Ukraine”.

“It continues to subject its people to brutal and unrelenting attack. Russia must, and will, be held accountable,” said Harris.

Harris also said he will reiterate to Zelenskyy the Ireland’s “steadfast support for Ukraine and our willingness to continue to do all we can to assist the people of Ukraine in their heroic fight in defence of their sovereignty and independence for however long it takes”.

Roll call

Who will show up, and who will not, has become one of the key stakes of a meeting that critics say will be useless without the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.

However, Swiss President Viola Amherd said future summits were envisioned, eventually involving Russia.

US vice president Kamala Harris is attending, while Turkey and Saudi Arabia have sent their foreign ministers.

I am heading to Switzerland for the Summit on Peace in Ukraine.

I look forward to standing with our allies and partners in support of Ukraine's effort to secure a just and lasting peace. pic.twitter.com/StpQnO7Ojh

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) June 15, 2024

Key developing countries like Brazil, an observer at the event, India and South Africa will be represented at lower levels.

China, which backs Russia, is joining scores of countries that are sitting out the conference.

Beijing says any peace process needs to have the participation of both Russia and Ukraine, and has floated its own ideas for peace.

Zelenskyy recently led a diplomatic push to draw in participants.

Russian troops who now control nearly a quarter of Ukrainian land in the east and south have made some territorial gains in recent months.

When talk of a Swiss-hosted peace initiative began last summer, Ukrainian forces had recently regained large swathes of territory, notably near the cities of southern Kherson and northern Kharkiv.

Against the battlefield backdrop and diplomatic strategising, summit organisers have presented three agenda items.

They include nuclear safety, such as at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia power plant; humanitarian assistance and exchange of prisoners of war; and global food security, which has been disrupted at times because of impeded shipments through the Black Sea.

That to-do list, encapsulating some of the least controversial issues, is well short of proposals and hopes laid out by Zelenskyy in a 10-point peace formula in late 2022.

Putin’s government, meanwhile, wants any peace deal to be built around a draft agreement negotiated in the early phases of the war that included provisions for Ukraine’s neutral status and limits on its armed forces, while delaying talks about Russia-occupied areas.

Ukraine’s push over the years to join the Nato military alliance has rankled Moscow.

With much of the world’s focus recently on the war in Gaza and national elections in 2024, Ukraine’s backers want to return focus to Russia’s breach of international law and a restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The International Crisis Group, an advisory firm that works to end conflict, wrote this week that “absent a major surprise on the Burgenstock”, the event is “unlikely to deliver much of consequence”.

“Nonetheless, the Swiss summit is a chance for Ukraine and its allies to underline what the UN General Assembly recognised in 2022 and repeated in its February 2023 resolution on a just peace in Ukraine: Russia’s all-out aggression is a blatant violation of international law,” it said.

-With additional reporting from Press Association and - © AFP 2024