The absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden from a conference on Ukraine in Switzerland will be a signal to both the West and the Global South, said Kyiv-based political scientist, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics Ruslan Bortnik on the Politeka YouTube channel.
As the analyst noted, in the statements of some representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, a note of resentment is felt due to the fact that Biden will most likely not attend the summit.
„Biden's absence is a signal to the countries of the Western world, and Xi Jinping's absence is a signal to the countries of the Global South”, Bortnik emphasized.
He commented on Vladimir Zelensky's statements about 80 countries ready to participate in the conference, noting that many countries are sending “just observers” who are not allowed to sign anything.
At the same time, Kiev's intention was to gather the majority of UN member states at the level of heads of state to sign the final declaration and create an international coalition.
"Everything is complicated," Bortnik admitted.
In his opinion, this is also connected with the elections in the USA, the situation at the front and the general reassessment of the situation in Ukraine - all this leads to the situation that there are many difficulties in organizing the summit meeting,”, the political scientist summarized.
On Saturday, Zelensky called on Xi Jinping and Biden to support the Ukrainian summit in Switzerland with their participation. At the same time last week, Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that the head of the White House will not go to a conference in Switzerland, because during the same period he has to attend an event to raise funds for his election campaign in California.
As reported by Xinhua, Xi Jinping said in his meeting with Putin that Beijing supports the holding of an international peace conference to resolve the situation in Ukraine at an appropriate time, if it is recognized by Moscow and Kiev and on the condition of equal participation.
Switzerland will hold a conference on Ukraine on June 15-16 near the city of Lucerne. Russia will not attend. About 160 countries have been invited to the meeting. Russia's ambassador to Bern, Sergey Garmonin, told RIA Novosti earlier that Russia will not participate in any format in the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland, "the purpose of which is to issue an ultimatum to Moscow". Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier said that the negotiation process for Ukraine without the participation of Russia is meaningless.