This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says his government is aiming to have a peace summit by the end of February with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as the mediator.
“The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit because this is not about making a favor to a certain country,” Kuleba told the Associated Press in an interview. “This is really about bringing everyone on board.”
Russia could only be invited to such a summit if the country faced a war crimes tribunal first, said Kuleba, who a day earlier said Ukraine would call for Russia to be removed as a permanent member of the UN Security Council due to its continued strikes against civilian infrastructure in its war against Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow’s proposals for “demilitarization” and “denazification” are known to Kyiv. Either Ukraine fulfills them, or the issue will be decided by Russia’s military, Lavrov said, according to TASS.
Kuleba added that diplomacy always plays an important role in ending conflict, and said Ukraine would welcome Guterres’ participation because he has proved to be an efficient mediator and “a man of principle and integrity.”
Kuleba also downplayed comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials that Moscow is ready for talks.
“They regularly say that they are ready for negotiations, which is not true because everything they do on the battlefield proves the opposite,” he told AP.
In comments released on December 25 on Russian state television, Putin said he was open to negotiations to end the war in Ukraine but suggested that the Ukrainians were the ones refusing to take that step.
Zelenskiy said earlier in December that Ukraine planned to initiate a summit to implement a peace formula in 2023. Zelenskiy presented the formula in November to a Group of Twenty summit.
The 10-point formula includes the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression, and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Kuleba said in televised remarks on December 25 that Kyiv would officially express its position on December 26 on the removal of Russia as a permanent member of the Security Council due to its continued strikes against civilian infrastructure in its war against Ukraine.
“We have a very simple question: Does Russia have the right to remain a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to be in the United Nations at all?” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in televised remarks on December 25. “We have a convincing and reasoned answer — no, it does not.”
Kuleba said that Ukraine would officially express its position on December 26, and claimed that the issue of Russia continuing to hold its veto-wielding permanent seat in the Security Council was already being discussed in UN diplomacy circles.
Russia is one of five permanent members — in addition to the United States, Britain, France, and China — of the UN Security Council, giving it the right to veto any resolutions. The powerful 15-seat body can take numerous steps to deal with global crises, including the authorization of military action, approving changes to the UN Charter, and imposing punitive measures such as sanctions against individual states.
Russia has for weeks been accused of violating international law by targeting water and power sources in Ukraine as temperatures fell. Kyiv has called the attacks, carried out with missile and drone strikes, acts of “energy terror” intended to deprive the population of heat during winter and break the will of the Ukrainian people.
