Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland: leaders aim to pressure Putin to end war

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00:00Well, let's go to Switzerland next. A peace summit underway right now in the Swiss resort

00:04above Lake Lucerne, aimed at, in principle, ending the war in Ukraine. But with Russia,

00:10the chief belligerent not there, a more realistic immediate goal seems to be to try to map out

00:14the first steps towards peace. China, another key player, isn't attending either, but around

00:1990 countries have sent high-level delegations. Let's bring in Gulliver Craig. Let's go to

00:24our correspondent in Kyiv. Gulliver, reading the room right now and looking at what's going

00:31on, has anything significant happened so far? How are you seeing this?

00:38Well, all we've had so far really has been some bilateral meetings between Volodymyr

00:44Zelensky and guests who arrived earlier, and then the ceremony of welcoming all the guests,

00:48which was about an hour ago. Looking at the parade of heads of state and heads of government

00:53arriving, I actually came to the conclusion that the Ukrainians are going to be able to

00:58call this a success, because it is not often that you get 56 heads of state and government

01:02together in one place, 30 other countries represented at ministerial level. Yes, the

01:07Chinese snubbed it. Indonesia has only sent an ambassador. Brazil also only represented

01:14by its ambassador to Switzerland. India, though, in the end, did decide to take part at a lower

01:20level, but sent a high-ranking foreign office official there from India. And you've got

01:25presidents from Africa, Ivory Coast, Libya, Kenya, all represented at the highest level,

01:32and South America, in particular Javier Milet, the Argentine president. Volodymyr Zelensky

01:37went to his inauguration in Argentina recently. When he arrived, there was a big hug between

01:42the two men. It was only confirmed at the last minute that he would actually be able

01:46to make it. And so all of this means that I think that although it's fallen short of

01:51what they were hoping for the Ukrainians, because they really wanted Chinese participation,

01:55they're still going to be able to say it's a success. But what we're hearing is that

01:59the communique that will be announced tomorrow is still under preparation. It's not a done

02:04deal. And there are really going to be some tough negotiations tomorrow. And a lot will

02:08depend on what the countries are all able to agree on. It's possible that not everyone

02:13will sign it.

02:14Ksia Skalovy, you obviously don't talk about success in terms of a plan towards peace,

02:18but a success of perhaps the optics of those who are there willing to hear out President

02:23Zelensky.

02:26The Ukrainians have been very clear that this is an inaugural summit, that this is a first

02:30step. They've been dialing down their ambitions in recent days as well, placing the emphasis

02:35on the fact that they're going to talk first of all about the least controversial aspect

02:38of Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, which are return of Ukrainian prisoners and Ukrainian

02:43children who've been abducted. Nuclear safety, three nuclear power plants in Ukraine are

02:49operational. One is not operational and under Russian occupation. Huge fears about those.

02:54And also food exports, making sure that Ukraine's able to keep supplies flowing out from its

03:01ports. Those are likely to be things that people can agree on. What's more controversial

03:06is Volodymyr Zelensky's insistence that all Russian forces must leave Ukraine and return

03:10to the 1991 borders. There, his task is trying to convince a sceptical world that that is

03:15still a realistically achievable goal. The Ukrainians, I believe, think it is. I think

03:21though they probably will be prepared to negotiate at some point in the future going forward,

03:25but definitely not on the basis of what Volodymyr Putin announced yesterday, which is Ukraine

03:30not just accepting Russian control over the parts of the country it already controls,

03:35but ceding significant amounts of more territory and colluding huge cities like Zaporizhia

03:40to Russia. That's absolutely, obviously unacceptable. Volodymyr Putin also yesterday denied ever

03:45having tried to take Kiev, which is obviously completely untrue. So I think that Volodymyr

03:50Putin's statements yesterday actually probably helped the Ukrainians in their argument that

03:55they were right not to invite Russia to this inaugural summit because Russia's clearly

03:58not prepared to negotiate at this stage on any kind of serious basis. It's interesting,

04:04Finally, Gulliver, a number of delegations, including India's delegation, talking to press

04:08about they're not taking on all of these, the 10-point plan of Ukraine. They are there

04:13to listen. I think you mentioned one of the issues, food security being big to them, nuclear

04:17security. And I think for Ukraine as well, the idea of the return of children transferred

04:22from Ukraine to Russia. You talk a little bit about it. If we talk again tomorrow, once

04:28the communiqué is out, what would you predict to be perhaps the best hope, the best takeaway

04:32for Ukraine from these two days?

04:35Oh, this is a difficult question. I suppose that there are countries who will step forward

04:41and say they're willing to mediate for the return of children and political prisoners.

04:45Already there have been successful mediation efforts, in particular by the United Arab

04:50Emirates, getting large numbers of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners swapped and returned.

04:57In terms of the nuclear power plants, I mean, something that's been mooted at some point

05:02has been the possibility of sending blue helmets in to protect them. But I don't know

05:07if that's likely to come out of this meeting. I'm afraid I'm looking forward to seeing what

05:13they come up with tomorrow as much as you are.

05:15Really good to talk to you as always. Gulliver Craig, our correspondent in Kyiv.

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