Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War point out that Ukraine's demands for a peace plan are justified, while Russia's are a violation of international law.
Source: ISW
The report notes that Ukraine continues to demonstrate its willingness to negotiate with Russia on its own terms, and that Ukraine's demands for a peaceful settlement are in line with international law - in contrast to Russia's unwillingness to engage in negotiations that end in nothing but a demand for Ukraine's complete surrender.
President Zelenskyy said on July 15 that Ukraine's plans for a second peace summit should be ready by November 2024, and reiterated that a Russian representative should attend.
Zelensky noted that in preparation for the Peace Summit, Ukraine will hold a meeting in Qatar on energy security in late July or early August 2024, a meeting on freedom of navigation in Turkey in August 2024, and a meeting on the exchange of prisoners of war and the repatriation of deported Ukrainian children in Canada in September 2024, three issues that were the focus of the communiqué of the first Global Peace Summit initiated by Ukraine in Switzerland in June 2024.
However, experts point out that recent Kremlin statements continue to demonstrate that Russia remains adamant about negotiations with Ukraine, and Kremlin officials have explicitly stated that Russia will not participate in the second peace summit because its terms are unacceptable given Russian demands.
Ukrainian officials have emphasized that the purpose of the first peace summit was to promote peace based on international law, including laws to which the Russian Federation is a party.
Ukraine's demands for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine are provided for by international law, and therefore they are reasonable. However, Russia's demands for Ukraine's complete surrender and continued Russian occupation of Ukrainian land are and will continue to be a violation of international law.
ISW also continues to believe that Putin's demands for Ukraine's surrender will allow Russian troops and occupation administrations to continue their large-scale and targeted campaigns of ethnic cleansing in occupied Ukraine, and that the full restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity is necessary to liberate the Ukrainian people from Russian occupation.
"Acceptance of anything other than Ukraine's liberation of its people is an indirect endorsement of Russia's illegal occupation of more than five million Ukrainians," the analysts note.
Author - Dmitriy Levchenko, 16/07/2024