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Zaporizhzhia NPP, grain corridor, children, POW exchange : Zelenskyy lists points of peace plan on agenda in Switzerland

25 May, 2024 Saturday
17:10

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlined three points that will be the main topics of discussion at the Peace Summit in Switzerland: nuclear energy security, food security, the exchange of "all for all" and the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia

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He said this in an interview with journalists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan on Saturday, May 25.

"You and I must clearly understand what we want to achieve from this summit. These are three points out of ten that we are bringing to this summit. There are 10 points not because we like the number 10. There have been crises, and they are on our territory because Russia brought all this to us. And I believe that the foundation for peace must first be built by the victim country, sorry. And the victim is Ukraine," Zelenskyy said.

According to him, the three points submitted to the Peace Summit unite all countries. The President noted that many countries balancing between Russia and Ukraine say that there are difficult things that are impossible without Russia.

"We have pushed aside what could divide the countries and have taken only three points for the first summit," Zelenskyy emphasized.

Point one — nuclear energy security

"That is, we have an occupied nuclear plant, six blocks, I have said more than once that it could be six Chornobyls. Ukrainian management and our technicians work there, but Russians are in charge. The children of Ukrainians are now in Russia, they are hostages and they simply will not be released. That's why our Ukrainians are working there like slaves in galleys. I don't know who died or not, at some point there was contact, they were allowed to give a phone, send some messages [to know that the person was alive], but there is nothing [now]," the president said.

In total, there are 15 nuclear blocks in Ukraine, including six occupied ones. Zelenskyy assured that this is a serious challenge given the number of different missile strikes that Russia chaotically launches every day.

Point two — food security

According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, all parties are interested in this issue. Ukraine had a grain corridor and showed how it could negotiate, but without the possibility for Russians to block. The President says that Ukraine reached an agreement with the UN and Turkey, and the format was agreed on how it could be done in the Black Sea, after which the document was shown to the Russians, and they saw what they agreed to and what they did not agree to. As a result, the parties reached two different documents by the same group of people, and the corridor began to work, Zelenskyy said.

"Unfortunately, the Russians realized what we were succeeding and blocked us: they violated this agreement. But the agreement they had was not with Ukraine, but with the UN and Turkey, so they did not dare to withdraw from the grain deal for so long. This pushes me once again to the point that first there should be an agreement with many partners, and then bring it to Russia, put pressure on them - no problem. And then it will be very difficult for them to withdraw from the agreements if the partners include large countries that have mutual economic interests with Russia. This is the whole global idea. Not the number of points, but the structure of the agreements," the president explained.

The third point is the exchange of "all for all" and the return of children abducted by Russia

"These are thousands of children, and no UN institution is dealing with this issue today. They are not able to, or they do not have access, or they are afraid of the Russians. We are returning the children in various formats, the Qataris helped us and so on," Zelenskyy emphasized.

He said that this summit was called inaugural, but there is a desire "not just to say hello, but to have at least three points to move forward somehow."

According to the President of Ukraine, there will be countries responsible for the technical processing of these three points.

"This is the most important thing I expect from this summit, and, of course, there is another dangerous aspect. According to all intelligence reports, the Russians are working to disrupt the summit, the possibility of the leaders' arrival, to show the illegitimacy of this summit as much as possible, to show that the majority of leaders, and we hope your leaders will hear us, do not support the summit. In order to avoid any steps towards the end of the war and take the initiative into their own hands, in order to base their ultimatums on the end of the war," Zelenskyy emphasized.

According to him, Ukraine's leadership knows who the Russians are asking for, which countries they are meeting with, and about dialogues with China.

"We understand what they are doing. They are just a collapse, a Soviet Union, which is not able to remove the garbage in its own house, but gets into someone else's house. This is a matter of their desire for constant destruction, not creation. But no matter how difficult it is, we will hold the summit," the Ukrainian president summarized the topic.

Peace Summit: details and features of the event

On February 26, Switzerland announced its intention to hold a peace summit in Ukraine by the summer. The Kremlin said that organizing such an event without Russia was "not serious and even ridiculous."

On March 18, Chinese Ambassador to Switzerland Wang Shi-ting said that China was considering participating in the peace summit organized by Switzerland at Ukraine's request.

On May 2, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said that Russia should participate in the Peace Summit, as "a peace process without Russia is inconceivable." However, Moscow was not invited to the event this year.

On the same day, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said that the Summit would be the first real chance to restore peace.

The Peace Summit is expected to develop a joint negotiating position of Ukraine, which will be submitted to the top leadership of Russia, according to the spokesman for the President of Ukraine, Serhii Nykyforov.
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