Zelensky continues to gather pledges to attend the peace summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to gather pledges for the planned peace summit in Switzerland in mid-June.

“Today I spoke with the heads of state and prime ministers of Chile, Albania, Austria and Mozambique,” ​​Zelensky said in his regular video message on Wednesday evening. “Four more countries at the summit – I thank them.”

It is already known that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to the meeting on behalf of Germany. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer will also attend the meeting on June 15 and 16 near the Swiss city of Lucerne, the chancellery in Vienna confirmed.

Nehammer called the conference an important step to make peace possible again. What was needed was a “broad alliance of allies for peace, including beyond the EU echo chambers,” Nehammer said.

The summit, organized by Switzerland at the request of Ukraine, aims to mobilize greater international support for the country currently under attack by Russia.

Ukraine hopes to convince neutral states or states in the South that are friendly to Russia of the correctness of its position. China in particular is being courted.

The aim is to involve approximately 80 countries in the summit. This first step is not about negotiations with Russia; Moscow is not invited and declines participation.

“Russian aggression has tried to turn the UN Charter into a museum piece,” Zelensky said in Kiev. “Our peace summit and the participation of leading politicians from around the world can make the UN Charter fully effective again and provide full protection to all nations.”

Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than two years. In addition to the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed in 2014, Moscow has declared four other Ukrainian territories its territory.