Switzerland said Monday 90 countries and organizations will attend the two-day Ukraine peace conference it is hosting beginning Saturday.
The Swiss government said that about half of the countries are from Europe and that broad global participation is important to launching a process with broad support.
A government statement said the peace conference aims to be a platform for discussing ways to achieve a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine based on international law and the U.N. charter,” as well as working on a framework for carrying out a peace plan and how to involve Russia and Ukraine in a peace process.
Switzerland is hosting the conference at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but Russia is not participating.
Russia has criticized the process and said it would engage in peace talks only if they take into account the situation on the ground, including Russia’s battlefield gains since launching its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelenskyy has demanded Russia withdraw from all Ukrainian territory.
Russia's advance on Kharkiv "has stalled" after the United States partially allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike targets inside Russia, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday.
"Kharkiv is still under threat, but Russians have not been able to make material progress on the ground in recent days in that area," Sullivan said during an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.” VOA
