More than 80 countries and international organisations have endorsed Ukraine’s territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s invasion in a joint communique issued at the end of a peace conference in Switzerland. The final statement of the summit in Bürgenstock said the UN charter, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states “can and will serve as a basis in achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine”. It called for Ukraine’s control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and its Azov Sea ports to be restored.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told the closing news conference that “Russia and their leadership are not ready for a just peace”, while welcoming the “first steps toward peace”. “Russia can start negotiations with us even tomorrow without waiting for anything – if they leave our legal territories,” he said.
The final document also called for all prisoners of war to be released in a “complete exchange” and for all Ukrainian children who had been “deported and unlawfully displaced” to be returned to Ukraine. Working groups at the summit also addressed the issues of global food security and nuclear safety.
However, western powers and their allies failed to persuade major non-aligned states to join the final statement as India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates all withheld their signatures from the communique. Brazil attended as an observer and did not endorse the text. Russia was not invited and China snubbed the event.
The European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, called for “patience and determination” after the summit that was attended by more than 90 countries. “It was not a peace negotiation because [the Russian president, Vladimir] Putin is not serious about ending the war, he’s insisting on capitulation, he’s insisting on ceding Ukrainian territory – even territory that today is not occupied.”
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, dismissed a peace proposal presented by Putin as unreasonable, saying meeting Moscow’s demands would make Kyiv even more vulnerable to further aggression. Sullivan said at the peace summit that under the Moscow proposal “not only does Ukraine have to give up the territory that Russia currently occupies but Ukraine has to leave additional sovereign Ukrainian territory”. He noted that Kyiv would also be bound to disarm under the Russian proposal “so that it is vulnerable to future Russian aggression down the road”.
Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured a village in southern Ukraine, continuing its progress on the frontline against a Ukrainian army lacking troops and ammunition. “Units of the eastern forces have liberated the settlement of Zagrine in the Zaporizhzhia region and occupied more favourable positions,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily report. Earlier in the week, it claimed the capture of three villages in Ukraine’s east, south-east and north-east.
The Russian army is suffering heavy losses in its Kharkiv offensive, a Russian soldier has claimed. Anton Andreev, a Russian soldier from the fifth company of the 1009th regiment, said his unit had been decimated, with only 12 out of 100 soldiers still alive as they came under constant Ukrainian fire and drones in Vovchansk, a prime target of Russia’s advances. “We are sent under machine guns, under drones in daylight, like meat,” he said in a clip, which was first published by the Russian outlet Astra and verified by the Guardian.
A Russian journalist was killed in a drone attack in eastern Ukraine two days after the death of another correspondent near the frontline. “Our correspondent Nikita Tsitsagi was killed during an attack by Ukrainian army drones,” his news organisation, News.Ru, posted on Telegram on Sunday. It said the attack happened around the Saint-Nicolas monastery near the town of Vugledar, the scene of fierce fighting for the past three months. The Russian foreign ministry said a Ukrainian drone had “purposefully hit the Russian journalist preparing a report in the area”.