Ukraine's foreign minister is calling for a peace summit to be held at the end of February to end the war in his country, but says Russia would have to face a war-crimes tribunal before his Kyiv engages directly with Moscow.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, made the proposal on Monday during an interview with the Associated Press. He also said Ukraine will do all it can to win the war in 2023.
"Every war ends in a diplomatic way," Kuleba told the AP. "Every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table."
Kuleba said that Ukraine wants the summit to be held at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres serving as mediator.
"The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit, because this is not about making a favor to a certain country," he said. "This is really about bringing everyone on board."
Kuleba said Guterres "has proven himself to be an efficient mediator and an efficient negotiator, and most importantly, as a man of principle and integrity."
The U.N gave a very cautious response to Kuleba's suggestion, according to the AP. "As the secretary-general has said many times in the past, he can only mediate if all parties want him to mediate," U.N. associate spokeswoman Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez told the AP.
Kuleba acknowledged during the interview that he doesn't suspect that Russia would take part in the proposed summit, and he said that Moscow should first face war-crimes prosecution at an international court. "They can only be invited to step in this way," he said.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told the state RIA Novosti news that Russia "never followed conditions set by others. Only our own and common sense."
Russia's president Vladimir Putin said last week that he wants an end to the war in Ukraine. "Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” he said. “We will strive for an end to this, and the sooner the better, of course.”
American officials, however, were skeptical, with White House spokesman John Kirby saying that the Russian dictator has "shown absolutely zero indication that he’s willing to negotiate” an end to the conflict.
Kuleba told the AP, "They (Russians) regularly say that they are ready for negotiations, which is not true, because everything they do on the battlefield proves the opposite."
The war in Ukraine has been raging for more than ten months. Russian troops invaded the country on February 24. General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated in November that there have been "well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded," with a similar number of casualties on the Ukrainian side. He also said that as many as 40,000 Ukrainian civilians have likely been killed in the war.
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