80 countries at Swiss conference agree territorial integrity of Ukraine must be basis of any peace

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00:00Next, a peace summit aimed at uniting global opinion on how to end Moscow's invasion in

00:05Ukraine has wrapped up in Switzerland.

00:08The first of its kind, the two-day conference in Bürgenstock brought together leaders and

00:12delegations from more than 90 countries, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

00:18It was not attended by Russia or China, though, which was seen as limiting the talk's potential

00:23impact.

00:24Moselensky nevertheless said history was made and expressed hopes for a peaceful solution

00:29going forward.

00:30Take a listen.

00:31Ladies and gentlemen, today is the day when the world begins to bring a just peace closer.

00:38I thank everyone who has worked for this day, every leader, all the teams and advisors,

00:45all the states.

00:46One hundred and one states and international organizations are now at the summit, and this

00:52is a tremendous success, our success, the common success of all those who believe that

00:59a united world, united nations are stronger than any aggressor.

01:04Well, for more on that, we can bring in Alexandra Filipenko.

01:09She's a political analyst and joins us now from Vilnius.

01:12Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us.

01:15First of all, what can we say are the main takeaways of this unprecedented summit?

01:21First of all, thank you for having me.

01:22And I think that in the communique we saw what are the key issues and the key points

01:27of this unique and first peace summit.

01:30And it's very important to stress that it is only the first of many peace summits that

01:36most probably will happen under the auspices of Ukraine or any other country that can host

01:42it, of course.

01:43So first of all, one of the key issues is nuclear power.

01:47Nuclear power plants, including Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, must operate safely and

01:52reliably under full sovereign control of Ukraine.

01:55This is the first key point.

01:56The second one is global food security.

01:59And the communique says that this uninterrupted food chain supply and free and safe commercial

02:06shipping is the most important thing that all allies must agree on.

02:11And the third, that all prisoners of war should be released and all deported and illegally

02:16displaced Ukrainian children, as well as all other Ukrainian civilians, must be returned.

02:23So these were three main key issues that were discussed and were decided on.

02:29And of course, there were seven more issues that President Zelensky voiced before the

02:34peace summit, but they were not in the final communique.

02:38And the chief of Zelensky's office, Andrei Yermak, said that Ukraine doesn't rule out

02:44speaking with Russia on future summits.

02:47So of course, this was not written in the communique, but I think this is one of the

02:52most important takeaways that we must realize is one of the reasons probably the summit

02:58has happened.

02:59This is one of the main key points that we should see.

03:05And it's very important that there might be talks on future peace summits.

03:10And just to continue a bit with that joint communique that was just released moments

03:14ago, we're hearing that it, quote, reaffirms commitment to Ukraine's territorial integrity.

03:21What does that entail, do you think?

03:22And what could that mean concretely for Ukraine going forward?

03:26To be fair, it should be said that many of the speakers at the summit and this final

03:31communique spoke about the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

03:35And they spoke about, again, the need for Russian participation in future summits to

03:43this territorial integrity to be secured.

03:46But we didn't see real borders, what this really means.

03:52In principle, all speakers decide that, yes, of course, we need to go back to 1991 borders.

03:59This is the most important issue for Ukraine right now and for the office of the president.

04:04But we do not see any particular maps, let's say, in this communique.

04:09So of course, these were the very important words that's been said.

04:13And most of the participants of the meeting, they spoke against Russian aggression, of

04:19course.

04:20And they said approximately the same thing, that it's necessary to continue supporting

04:23Ukraine, that Putin is an aggressor and should be forced to leave Ukraine.

04:27But there are no limits as of time and there are no exact maps.

04:33So territorial integrity mostly, most probably means going back to 1991 borders.

04:39But again, to be honest, it seems like beautiful and nice words, but nothing in particular

04:46and nothing that, for example, countries must do to safeguard this territorial integrity

04:52exactly right now.

04:54And Russia was, of course, not invited to the talks, which some participants have condemned.

04:59And China, of course, as well, stayed away for this very reason.

05:04How much impact do you think the summit has had on first uniting global opinion, but also

05:08putting pressure on Moscow?

05:12For uniting global opinion, of course, it was very important.

05:15And yes, many of the speakers spoke about the need for Russia's participation.

05:20In particular, Consular Schultz spoke about it.

05:23The European Council President Charles Michel spoke about it.

05:26The Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Fakhr Al Saud also spoke about it.

05:31So a lot of leaders talked about need for Russian participation.

05:35And just before the summit, we should remember that Vladimir Putin spoke out and he presented

05:42his view of peace and his view of what peace should be.

05:46So he presented those unrealistic, let's say, things that he wants from Ukraine.

05:53But we realized that only with talking with Russia, something can be resolved.

05:59And Andrei Yermak spoke about it.

06:01And although Vladimir Zelensky didn't speak about possible negotiations with President

06:07Putin, but the office of the president of Ukraine signaled that in the future, this

06:13can happen.

06:14Of course, it's very important to mention that China wasn't present at the summit.

06:18But again, Andrei Yermak said in his interview yesterday that any other country can sign

06:25this communique, this final communique, any other country that did not participate in

06:29the summit, but that agrees with those key points.

06:33So we might expect maybe not Russia, but at least Russia's close ally, China, to sign

06:39under this communique.

06:41And probably this would be the sign that there will be talks in the nearest future.

06:46Of course, the signal that President Putin gave a few days before the summit also means

06:51that he wants some kind of negotiation.

06:54OK, I think that's all we have time for, unfortunately.

06:56But thank you so much for that recap and for your analysis.

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