Over the weekend, a Ukrainian peace conference was held in Switzerland, where 80 countries signed a general declaration. However, several participating countries did not sign it.

"Eighty countries agreed on very general principles, stating that the precondition for achieving a just and lasting peace is the respect for the UN Charter and international law, which includes the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty. They identified three areas where, in their view, progress could be made: food security, prisoner exchanges, including children, and nuclear plant safety. In terms of content, there was no significant step forward compared to previous UN General Assembly resolutions, and that was not the goal. The goal was to show that there are countries in the world that still support these principles, and that they are not only in Europe and North America but on all continents. In this sense, the event was successful," explained Jonatan Vseviov, secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, about the summit's outcome.

Vseviov noted that as long as the warring parties have not changed their fundamental positions and objectives, it is impossible to agree on peace.

"Despite what Putin says publicly, we have no reason to believe he has changed any of his goals. Ukraine also has not abandoned its desire to exist, just as we have not abandoned the desire for European security to be based on the pillars it has been. Thus, the various peace initiatives, meetings and summits can currently be viewed as political stakes in the ground to show how much support each side has among the world's countries. Naturally, peace cannot be achieved through a single event, just as peace cannot come from Putin's so-called peace plan announced a few days ago. These are all tools for shaping the landscape," said Vseviov.

Vseviov called Putin's peace plan a trap.

"I think he knows exactly what he is doing. In his view, peace and these offers are nothing but a trap, which we have repeatedly seen in action before. His goal is to lure some into this trap, thereby collapsing Western unity and the Ukrainian government's support domestically. He has no desire to achieve peace because achieving peace would require him to withdraw his troops from Ukraine and stop fighting. There is no sign of that. So, setting up such a trap is naturally expected from him. We have always been prepared for this; he has done it before. Our job is to ensure that no one falls into it because, rest assured, our defeat in this war would not be labeled as such – it would be sold to us under the guise of peace, just as the fundamental change in the European security architecture would come under some label of strategic stability," he said.

"It's essential to recognize what kind of peace is being discussed. Is it the kind of peace that came to Estonia after World War II, or is it the kind of peace that came after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union? These are fundamentally different kinds of peace. Therefore, we in Estonia have outlined relatively clearly what we consider an acceptable outcome. This includes the preservation of the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty, including for Ukraine. It requires the discrediting of aggression as a tool in international relations, ensuring that those who have caused harm and committed crimes are held accountable. It also requires the maintenance of NATO and the European Union as the foundational pillars of European security, with Ukraine as part of them. Speaking more clearly about what Estonia aims for is honestly difficult," added Vseviov.

"Since there were many different countries present in Switzerland, not just NATO and EU countries, the text is more general, but the support and consensus for these basic principles were strong," said Vseviov.

According to Vseviov, peace negotiations will occur in one of two situations: if Russia concludes that it is at an impasse and agrees to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, or if Ukraine collapses under the weight of the war and is forced to accept dictated terms.

"In the latter case, these are not really negotiations. Then we can formally talk about peace, but not real peace, and it is therefore very important for us to emphasize that the peace we seek is just and lasting. Otherwise, we have seen in our history, and even recent history, that simply imposing an agreement under the guise of peace doesn't work – Ukraine knows this too. Thus, we must avoid the trap that Putin is trying to set under the guise of peace and ensure that the majority of the world's countries, which are far from this region, do not fall into it. In this sense, the Swiss event naturally fulfilled its role – it showed that there is a path to peace that aligns with generally accepted norms, and about 80 countries agreed with it. A number of countries remained neutral, and work needs to be done with them," Vseviov explained.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!