Ukraine needs more time to discuss its peace formula with non-Western countries, its foreign minister said, as he pressed on with a tour of European allies to drum up support for the plan.
(Bloomberg) — Ukraine needs more time to discuss its peace formula with non-Western countries, its foreign minister said, as he pressed on with a tour of European allies to drum up support for the plan.
Speaking alongside his French counterpart, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine would use the opportunity of the next session of the United Nations to speak with Asian and Latin American nations that have yet to show support.
“We need more diplomacy, more communication, more contacts, and we’ll take advantage of the next UN session,” he said in Paris on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last year released his 10-point “formula,” which calls for a full Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory, the release of all prisoners of war and deportees and steps to ensure food and energy security.
It also includes security guarantees for Ukraine once the fighting ends and safeguards for the area around the occupied nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia. So far, key elements of that draft haven’t gotten much traction beyond Kyiv’s allies.
Russia, meanwhile, is courting the favor of emerging geopolitical powers known as the Global South. Many of those nations support the idea of a peaceful negotiation while refraining from backing Ukraine’s plan. Moscow insists the territory it occupies is now part of its country and rejects any proposal that it withdraw.
Still, Kuleba said Ukraine was seeing that some African countries are willing to join the process.
“The very flexible nature of this Ukrainian formula is convincing,” Kuleba said. “It’s made of 10 points, but we propose that each country picks which point it’s ready to engage. This flexible approach is what allows us to have a larger coalition.”
Zelenskiy has suggested he’d like the negotiations to lead to a peace summit among leaders this fall to rally support for Ukraine’s positions, but it’s not clear that Global South nations are ready to take sides so soon.
Previous Ukrainian efforts to garner backing from the Global South have included two diplomatic meetings — in Copenhagen in June and in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier this month.
The plan is at the center of the Ukrainian envoy’s European tour, which he started in Prague. In Paris, Kuleba will also meet president Emmanuel Macron.
In addition, he’ll attend a meeting of European Union foreign and defense ministers in Toledo, Spain, on Thursday. There, he’ll discuss new supplies of weapons, including air defense systems, Ukraine’s peace formula and his country’s EU accession.
–With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Ania Nussbaum and Patrick Donahue.
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