Kyiv wants to build global consensus around its plan to end the war without Russian input. But it also has identified several specific issues it wants to rally support around.
- Children, energy, trade -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with AFP last month identified three key concerns it will place at the centre of the conference, as part of his 10-point plan to end the war.
First: he said he wants to secure the return of thousands of Ukrainian children that he says have been forcibly transferred to Russian-controlled territory.
Second: he wants guarantees around nuclear and energy security. Russian strikes have crippled Ukrainian power plants and fighting near the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has raised fears of a catastrophic radiation accident.
Third: he wants to ensure that Ukraine will be able to export grain via the Black Sea -- a key corridor for deliveries to food-vulnerable nations that Kyiv wants to win over.
Zelensky told AFP that if Ukraine can rally consensus around these issues: "it means that Russia will not block them further".
- No Russia. Yet -
Russia's exclusion from the summit has prompted criticism from some Kremlin-sympathetic capitals including Beijing, which said Russia should be included in any peace process.
The Kremlin has said it would be "absurd" to work towards resolving the conflict without Russian participation.
However Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said this week Russia must be included at some point and that it was more a question of "when Russia will be on board" in the process rather than if.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, echoed that point on Tuesday, suggesting that Russian representatives could be invited to a later summit.
Zelensky earlier explained why Russia had not been invited: "We do not want any formats of negotiations, any formulas for peace to be imposed on us by countries, even our partners, who are not here, not at war."
- Global South -
Ukraine has invited more than 160 nations to participate at the summit and Zelensky has said garnering support from as many countries as possible, including the global south, will be key to the summit.
Zelensky pointed out several areas of mutual interest to AFP. Countries in Africa are concerned with food security while Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have helped secure the release of Ukrainian children from Russia.
Moscow however has longstanding diplomatic ties with countries in Africa and South America from the Soviet period. Many were represented at an economic forum in Saint Petersburg last week.
Ukraine has accused Moscow of seeking to deter countries in the global south from attending.
"The global majority can ensure that what is agreed upon is actually implemented, and that Russia, which started this brutal war, cannot push us off the path to ending it," Zelensky has said.
- Peace Plan -
Ukraine's agenda for the summit is broadly based around a 10-point "peace formula" that was devised in Kyiv and has been promoted by Zelensky since the war's first year.
Kyiv says the aim of the plan is to achieve a just and lasting peace, guided by international law and principles outlined by the United Nations.
It foresees the restoration of Ukrainian territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, and the establishment of a tribunal to investigate war crimes.
Moscow has rejected Zelensky's plan because it would require Russia to return territory it has conquered in Ukraine over the last decade of conflict.
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