The Russian Federation will not participate in the Peace Summit without forcing it to do so, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said, commenting on the initiative of Switzerland and Italy to hold a second peace summit with the participation of the Russian Federation.
“Russia will not voluntarily participate in any conference, in any summit, if there are no appropriate instruments of coercion for Russia to realize what international law is, on the basis of which certain negotiations can be conducted and how it should be implemented,” said Podolyak on the air of the telethon on Tuesday, answering the relevant question.
He emphasized that the initiative of the Russian Federation’s participation in such a summit should be accompanied by the logic of its implementation. “You are now talking about the Swiss and Italian sides. They say: we want the Russian Federation to necessarily participate in the Peace Summit. Good, but on what basis will she take it and will it be constructive? When you have a party that is the initiator of a large-scale war in Eastern Europe, that absolutely deliberately violates international law as a concept, and that basically wants to squeeze Ukraine at the expense of the very genocidal practices used in this war, how exactly do you want to involve it and what exactly do you want to get from this country at this or that forum, summit or any other platforms? When you want to express your desire, you must then give the logic of such a desire, how it can be realized,” said Podolyak.
According to the adviser to the head of the OP, the situation on the battlefield is “the first tool of coercion.” “The second component is economic factors that will affect the position of the Russian Federation. And the third is, of course, diplomatic pressure,” he said.
“Appeals to Russia just don’t work like that. Only a set of instruments of coercion works… Russia only understands force… Russia understands losses when the price of war increases significantly. And thirdly, Russia definitely understands diplomatic isolation, it is already in this isolation, but it would be desirable for this isolation to be much greater, so that there are no such words that can be interpreted in two ways and pretend that we can be quiet there with the Russian Federation agree on something,” Podolyak summarized.
As reported, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, Ignazio Cassis, and the Vice-Prime Minister, the Head of the Foreign Ministry of Italy, Antonio Tajani, discussed the situation in Ukraine and signed a declaration in which they noted their concern about the aggression of the Russian Federation and supported the holding of the second peace summit “with the participation of all parties, including Russia “.
