A certain “peace summit” dedicated to resolving the situation in Ukraine can be imagined without the participation of Kyiv rather than without representatives of Moscow.

So the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN commented on the proposals of the Ukrainian side to exclude the Russian Federation from the UN

and hold peace talks on the basis of a world organization.

“Information agencies spread two pieces of news at once concerning Ukrainian “diplomacy”.

First, Foreign Minister Kuleba said that Ukraine was proposing to hold a “peace summit” by the end of February, where the UN Secretary General could act as a kind of mediator.

Secondly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine gave birth to a lengthy statement that Russia allegedly became a member of the Security Council and the UN in general illegally and with a call to exclude us from there ... If you try to put these two news together, they are mutually exclusive.

What could be a “peace summit” without Russia?

It’s very easy to imagine it without Ukraine, ”said Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, in his Telegram channel.

The diplomat added that statements about the illegality of Russia's membership in the UN Security Council have become a favorite topic of Kyiv's permanent representative to the world organization Sergei Kislitsa.

At the same time, such initiatives by the Ukrainian side only bring the situation closer when the “peace summit” will be held without Kyiv, Polyansky said.

On December 26, in an interview with AP, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Kyiv wants to hold a "peace summit" on the UN platform at the end of February 2023.

“We think that the best venue for this summit could be the UN site, because here it’s not about doing a favor to any country, it’s really about getting everyone involved,” he said, adding that Ukraine would welcome the participation of UN Secretary General António Guterres as a mediator.

  • Dmitry Polyansky

  • AP

  • © John Minchillo

At the same time, as AP notes, Kuleba said that Russia must first appear before a “war crimes tribunal” before Kyiv will conduct direct negotiations with Moscow.

The Foreign Minister also said that Ukraine would do everything to win, including on the battlefield.

UN Deputy Spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez reacted to Kyiv's initiative to hold a peace summit.

“As the Secretary General has pointed out many times in the past, he can only mediate if all parties want him to mediate,” she said.

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky also announced the preparation of a certain international format.

On December 18, he announced that Kyiv was already preparing a “peace summit” this winter.

At the same time, the country’s leadership has repeatedly said before that the Ukrainian “peace formula” should be the basis for resolving the situation, which, in particular, provides for the creation of a “special tribunal” against the Russian Federation.

Russia stated that Moscow would not negotiate on someone else's terms.

“We never followed someone else's conditions.

They focused only on themselves.

And for common sense, ”said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, in response to a question about Moscow’s readiness for dialogue on Kyiv’s terms.

In turn, the head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, said that Ukraine is still not ready for peace negotiations, including at the UN site.

“All Kuleba’s statements are a smoke screen,” the deputy stressed, recalling that it was Kyiv that withdrew from the Istanbul negotiation process and chose the path of escalation.

Assignee of the USSR

In his comment, Dmitry Polyansky also touched upon the recently published resonant statement of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which stated that the Russian Federation allegedly illegally occupies a seat in the UN and the Security Council of the organization and should be expelled from there.

“Ukraine calls on the UN member states to restore the application of the UN Charter in the issue of the legitimacy of the presence of the Russian Federation in the UN, deprive the Russian Federation of the status of a permanent member of the UN Security Council and exclude it from the UN as a whole,” the publication says.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claims that Russia allegedly never went through a "legitimate procedure for gaining membership" and illegally takes the place of the USSR in the UN Security Council.

“From a legal and political point of view, there can be only one conclusion: Russia is a usurper of the Soviet Union’s seat in the Security Council,” the statement said.

  • Dmitry Kuleba

  • AP

  • © Valentin Ogirenko

The document also says: "Ukraine is initiating a comprehensive process aimed at achieving the goals of this statement, and in this context is ready to cooperate with other countries to jointly protect the UN Charter and international law from the destructive impact of the Russian Federation."

Recall that after the collapse of the USSR, Russia became the successor of the Soviet Union.

The CIS member states documented their desire to see the Russian Federation as the successor of the USSR at a meeting of presidents in Alma-Ata on December 21, 1991.

The successor country received all the rights and obligations of its predecessor, including in the UN, because it was legally the same subject of international law. 

"Would mean the collapse of the UN"

According to analysts, Kyiv's "peace" initiatives cannot be taken seriously.

“Propaganda dominates the foreign policy of the current Ukrainian regime.

If you look in retrospect at the various initiatives of Kyiv, they were all propaganda in nature.

Speaking of a peace summit, they are trying to keep the interest of the West, which is objectively weakening.

This attempt to demonstrate Kyiv's readiness for diplomacy is deliberately false and sounds false.

It's all air shaking.

Actually, this is what the Ukrainian “Minister of Propaganda” Kuleba is doing, ”Vladimir Olenchenko, a senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS, said in an interview with RT.

  • UN Security Council meeting

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency

In turn, Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, believes that the UN is unlikely to become a platform for negotiations on Ukraine.

“Everything depends on the consent of the parties who choose the site.

But who is the other side here?

I do not think that there can be any talk of negotiations with Ukraine, since they have already taken place and have not led to anything.

The Ukrainian side first agreed with something, and then immediately refused.

We can only talk about negotiations between the Russian Federation and the United States or the collective West.

But neither Russia nor the United States needs the UN as a platform, ”the analyst said.

At the same time, the choice of the site itself is not so important - the main thing is that there is an intention of the parties to negotiate, he stressed.

“The main thing is to have something to discuss, but this has not yet been observed.

There is no formula that could at least partially fit all parties.

At the same time, Russia has never abandoned mutually acceptable outcomes.

But no one offers them to us, ”the expert said.

Experts also commented on Kyiv's calls to exclude the Russian Federation from the UN.

Ukraine's position on this issue is absurd from a legal point of view, political analysts are sure.

“Legally, such statements have no basis and do not correspond to the facts.

Russia cannot be excluded from the UN without Moscow's consent.

And the exclusion of the Russian Federation from the Security Council by any illegitimate vote would mean the collapse of the UN as an organization.

Similar has already happened with the League of Nations.

The USSR was expelled from it, accused of aggression against Finland.

After that, the organization did not last long, ”Bruter recalled.

He added that the continued existence of the UN largely depends on Russia.

“It is the Russian Federation that is the country that opposes the Western mainstream.

And while Russia opposes it, the UN is a platform for dialogue.

If the Russian Federation leaves from there, then the UN will simply not play any role in world politics, ”he said.

According to him, such initiatives of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry are created under the dictation of Washington.

A similar point of view is shared by Vladimir Olenchenko.

“Such calls are heard not for the first time and demonstrate their authors' banal ignorance of international law.

The United States encourages Kyiv to make such statements because they want to make the UN Security Council tame.

Ukraine, on the other hand, needs to be reminded that it became a member of the UN only because at one time the Soviet leadership insisted on this, ”the expert concluded.