(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday the island nation of Cape Verde had become the first African country to agree to join a global “peace summit” aimed at finding a solution to Ukraine’s longest-running war since two years. Russia.
The summit, to which Russia has not been invited, is to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16, and Ukraine is hoping to garner broad support to persuade Moscow to agree to terms that Kiev considers acceptable.
Ukraine is making great efforts to bring countries from the Global South on board, although Russia benefits from long-standing ties with Moscow dating back to the Soviet Union.
In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Zelensky said he thanked the Prime Minister of Cape Verde, Ulisses Correia e Silva, during a phone conversation.
“I thanked him for his support of the peace formula and his personal principled position on the invasion of Russia,” Zelensky wrote. “Cape Verde is the first African country to confirm its participation in the peace summit.”
The president, who made a brief stop in Cape Verde last year on his way to Argentina, also mentioned the conversation in his nightly speech as a step towards organizing the June rally.
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![A woman walks against a backdrop of relief sculptures depicting war scenes at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine during World War II in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)](https://www.usnews.com/object/image/0000018e-f284-d8a7-abce-faff4d2a0000/ukraine-03.jpg?update-time=1713465878201&size=responsive640)
![A woman walks against a backdrop of relief sculptures depicting war scenes at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine during World War II in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)](https://www.usnews.com/object/image/0000018e-f284-d8a7-abce-faff4d2a0000/ukraine-03.jpg?update-time=1713465878201&size=responsive640)
“Every continent will be represented at our summit in Switzerland, different nations, big or small, those that have clearly shown their support for international law and those that will,” he said.
Zelensky supports a peace plan that calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops, the restoration of Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders and a process to hold Russia accountable for its actions. He hopes more than 80 countries will participate.
Russia says the plan does not take into account “new realities” in Ukraine and rejects the summit as meaningless if Moscow is not a party.
The Swiss government said last week that a peace process without Russia was “not possible”. The aim of the meeting, he said, was “to inspire a future peace process”.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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