Int´l peace conference for Ukraine opens in Switzerland

An international conference opening in a secluded resort in Switzerland on Saturday is set to discuss the first building blocks of a peace process in the Ukraine war, reported dpa.

National leaders and other high-ranking representatives from 92 countries as well as from international organizations are expected to attend. Russia, however, was not invited.

They are to discuss issues ranging from grain exports from Ukraine, the safety of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and humanitarian issues including prisoner exchanges.

The United States, Kiev's most important ally, will be represented by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris announced after her arrival in Switzerland that the US was giving more than $1.5 billion in new aid for Ukraine, much of it to go towards the energy sector and humanitarian assistance.

A slew of leaders from Europe will be there, including Finnish President Alexander Stubb, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

"This is a diplomatic seedling that we are watering so that it can grow," Scholz said in an interview with broadcaster ZDF on Saturday morning.

Scholz said he hoped the conference would "lay the foundation" for further negotiations that Russia would take part in.

The meeting is taking place on Ukraine's initiative and President Volodymyr Zelensky is attending. He arrives, as will several leaders, directly from the Group of Seven (G7) meeting in southern Italy, which was largely focused on the Russian war.

Russia currently occupies around a fifth of Ukraine's territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it illegally annexed in 2014.

Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded on Friday that Ukraine completely relinquish the territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea as a condition for an end to the fighting. Kiev rejected the idea as absurd.

The Swiss conference on Saturday and Sunday primarily aims to mobilize international support for Ukraine - including from countries that are friendly to Russia.

But China, which is Putin's most important ally, is not participating. Other influential friends of Russia such as India and South Africa will be there, but are not even represented at ministerial level. Brazil is only participating as an "observer."

There are other high-profile absences, too.

Zelensky travelled to Saudi Arabia this week, sparking speculation that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has a good relationship with Putin, could come. However, the guest list published by the Swiss hosts on Friday evening only includes Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

Around half of those attending the meeting in a luxury hotel high on the Bürgenstock, a mountain ridge on Lake Lucerne, are from Europe and the other half from the rest of the world.

The Swiss hope that a further conference will be decided this year - and that this would include Moscow, which launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.