Switzerland to host Ukraine peace conference in June – without Russia
- Russia is not taking part in the high-level international peace conference for Ukraine on June 15-16
- Swiss president says the event will not see a peace plan signed, but hopes to start the process
Switzerland said it would organise a high-level peace conference for Ukraine in mid-June, but without Russia, which promptly slammed the event as a US-orchestrated plot.
Ukraine and up to 100 countries would attend the conference at the luxury Burgenstock resort near the central city of Luzern on June 15-16, which Swiss President Viola Amherd said she would host.
“This is a first step in a process towards a lasting peace,” she told reporters in Bern on Wednesday.
Amherd acknowledged that “we will not sign a peace plan at this conference” but “we hope to start the process”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called in his daily briefing on “every leader, every state that wants the Russian aggression to end in a truly just peace [to] join our global efforts – the first peace summit to be held in Switzerland in June”.