A top advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said mediation has failed, and Kyiv’s peace plan is the only way to end Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
Chief diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva told Reuters that Ukraine wanted to implement its peace plan, which calls for the full departure of Russian soldiers.
In recent months, he rejected peace initiatives from China, Brazil, the Vatican, and South Africa.
“There cannot be a Brazilian peace plan, a Chinese peace plan, a South African peace plan when you are talking about the war in Ukraine,” Zhovkva said in an interview late Friday.
In response to Global South peace measures, Zelenskiy courted the region this month. On May 19, he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Iraq, and other delegations during the Arab League conference.
He then traveled to Japan to see India and Indonesia’s presidents on the sidelines of the Group of Seven conferences in Hiroshima.
Kyiv has strong support from the West in its fight against the Kremlin, but the Global South—Latin America, Africa, and most of Asia—where Russia has focused diplomatic energy for years has not.
During the Ukraine conflict, Moscow sold more electricity to India and China.
Russia is rerouting seaborne oil imports from Europe to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East in reaction to a Western blockade.
During the war, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Africa several times, and St. Petersburg will host a Russia-Africa summit this summer.
Last Monday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba began his second wartime visit to Africa to combat Russia’s diplomatic influence.
Ukraine’s Zhovkva prioritized Global South support. He noted that while Ukraine focused on Western allies at the start of the invasion, all countries wanted peace.
He dismissed Pope Francis’ “political problem” description of Ukraine’s occupied lands as a call for negotiation with Russia.
Mediation is unnecessary during an open war. He declared mediation too late.
Zhovkva stated the G7 summit’s response to Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan was quite good.
“Not a single formula (point) had any concerns from the (G7) countries,” Zhovkva said.
He said Kyiv wants G7 leaders to help attract as many Global South leaders as possible to a summer “Peace Summit” planned by Kyiv. The site was still being explored.
Russia has offered peace talks with Kyiv, which stopped a few months into the invasion. However, it insists that any negotiations be based on “new realities”—its declared annexation of five Ukrainian provinces it fully or partly controls—which Kyiv would not accept.
China, the world’s second-largest economy and Ukraine’s major economic partner before the war, has promoted a 12-point peace plan that calls for a truce but does not denounce the invasion or require Russia to withdraw.
Beijing’s top ambassador to Kyiv and Moscow, Li Hui, encouraged peace negotiations this month.
Zhovkva claimed the envoy was informed about the battlefield, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the electricity infrastructure, and Russia’s war crime of kidnapping Ukrainian children.
“He listened intently. No immediate answer… Will see. China is intelligent and knows its world role.”
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