Zelenskyy: Ukraine Collaborating with Qatar and Other Nations for Second Peace Summit
In April, a diplomatic heavyweight mediated an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to exchange 48 children who had been separated by the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that he is in discussions with Qatar, as well as India, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and Türkiye, regarding a second peace summit, as the ongoing war with Russia continues without a ceasefire in sight.
Zelenskyy made these remarks during a press conference in Kyiv on Sunday with Indian journalists, coinciding with a visit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This visit marked the first time an Indian prime minister has visited Ukraine since it declared independence in 1991.
During the briefing, Zelenskyy expressed his support for India potentially hosting the second peace summit, along with other countries from the Global South.
Reports suggest that planned mediation talks between Moscow and Kyiv in Doha were disrupted.
“But I want to be clear, and this applies not only to India but to any country willing to host a second summit. We cannot hold a peace summit in a nation that has not yet endorsed the peace summit communique,” he stated.
In June, Zelenskyy convened world leaders in Switzerland for the first summit to rally support for the Ukraine Peace Formula, a peace plan he introduced at the 2022 G-20 Summit in Indonesia, which outlines 10 points to end the war.
Since the onset of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, Qatar has maintained a balanced foreign policy, engaging in discussions with officials from both countries.
In April, Qatar facilitated an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to exchange 48 children separated by the conflict, aiming to return 29 children to Ukraine and the remaining 19 to Russia.
Ukraine claims that Russia has taken more than 19,000 Ukrainian children since the start of the war, but it remains unclear how many have returned home.
Meanwhile, according to a report by The Washington Post on August 17, Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Qatar that month for negotiations to mutually halt attacks on energy and power infrastructure.
However, diplomats and officials familiar with the situation told the news outlet that the talks were derailed following Ukraine's surprise attack on Russia’s western Kursk region on August 6.
A diplomat briefed on the matter noted that Russian officials postponed their meeting with Qatari officials following the incursion, stating that Moscow "did not call off the talks."
The Ukrainian presidential office also told The Post that the Doha meeting was postponed "due to the situation in the Middle East," and was instead held virtually on August 22.