President of the European council Charles Michel, centre left, meets Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday 16 June. Photograph: Alessandro Della Valle/AFP/Getty Images
President of the European council Charles Michel, centre left, meets Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday 16 June. Photograph: Alessandro Della Valle/AFP/Getty Images
Saudi Arabia, India, South Africa and others opt out of Ukraine declaration
Saudi Arabia, India, South Africa, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates were among countries participating at a summit on peace for Ukraine that did not sign a final communique, the Swiss government has said, Reuters reports.
Switzerland, which hosted the summit, said over 90 countries took part in the talks, and the vast majority of them signed up to the communique, according to a list which the Swiss organisers posted at the close of proceedings.
Saudi Arabia, India, SouthAfrica, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates were among countries participating at a summit on peace for Ukraine that did not sign a final communique, the Swiss government has said, Reuters reports. Brazil, which attended the summit as an “observer” country, did not sign on, but Turkey — which has sought a role as intermediary between Russia and Ukraine — did.
The vast majority – 80 of the 90 or so countries taking part – did sign the communique. The statement reiterated that Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” should be respected in any peace deal to end the war.
The final document also called for all prisoners of war to be released in a “complete exchange” and for all Ukrainian children who had been “deported and unlawfully displaced” to be returned to Ukraine. Working groups at the summit also addressed the issues of global food security and nuclear safety. And the countries also called for Ukraine to have “full sovereign control” over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the participants at this weekend’s peace summit had agreed to continue working in special groups afterwards and that once “action plans for peace” were ready, a path to a second summit would be open.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday dismissed a peace proposal presented by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin as unreasonable, saying meeting Moscow’s demands would make Kyiv even more vulnerable to further aggression. “Not only does Ukraine have to give up the territory that Russia currently occupies but Ukraine has to leave additional sovereign Ukrainian territory,” Sullivan said at the peace summit.
Canada plans to host a gathering of foreign ministers in the coming months to advance work on the human cost of the war in Ukraine, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said.
Hostages held at a detention centre in Russia’s southern region of Rostov by detainees affiliated with Isis were released unharmed and their captors killed after special forces stormed the facility. It was not immediately clear how many of the six hostage-takers had been killed.
Kyiv held its first LGBTQ+ pride march since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Several hundred LGBTQ+ Ukrainian servicemen and women and their supporters marched in central Kyiv to demand more rights and highlight their service to their country in its war with Russia.
A follow-up summit to this weekend’s talks in Switzerland aimed at paving the way for peace in Ukraine is conceivable before the US presidential election in November, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said, Reuters reports.
Where the next conference could be held was unclear at the conclusion of the summit of world leaders in Switzerland.
AFP spoke to some of the attendees at the pride march in Kyiv earlier today.
“Even through the attacks, we need to come and show up. We are such a country, such a nation, we don’t give up. If our rights are taken, we fight for them,” said 27-year-old Dina Ivanova.
She contrasted the situation in Ukraine with that of Russia, where the Kremlin has accelerated its repression of the LGBTQ+ community since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022. “I’m very happy that I live in a country where I can even go to pride,” she said. “Those damned Russians can’t.”
Among the participants were several openly LGBTQ soldiers, including 28-year-old Petro Zherukha, whose unit gave him leave to attend the rally.
Polls show a growing acceptance of gay, lesbian and transgender people since the outbreak of the war, with LGBTQ+ soldiers joining the ranks of the armed forces.
“For many of my comrades, I was the first LGBT person they had ever seen, Zherukha said. “It was as if they had come into contact with an alien.”
“There were a lot of questions, but I think that after we talked a lot ... everything became very cool,” he said.
The lack of a legal framework for same-sex couples means that the partners of LGBTQ soldiers killed or wounded may not even be informed of what happened to their loved ones. “Is that fair, when people are sacrificing their lives? No,” said Marlene Scandal, a drag queen crowned with rainbow flowers and a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian trident.
Participants attend the 2024 Kyiv pride parade. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that China should communicate its peace proposals on ending the war with Russia to Ukraine directly, instead of doing so via media outlets, Reuters reports.
The Ukrainian leader made the comment at a news conference in Switzerland after this weekend’s international summit to build consensus on how to end the war came to a close. China snubbed the summit.
Here are some more pictures from the pride march by LGBTQ+ soldiers and their supporters in Kyiv earlier today. It was the first pride march to be held in Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Several hundred LGBTQ+ Ukrainian servicemen and women and their supporters marched in central Kyiv to demand more rights and highlight their service to their country in its war with Russia.
The soldiers called on the government to grant them official partnership rights. The march took places under a heavy police guard amid threats from counter protesters.
Ukrainian soldiers at the pride march. Campaigners are seeking legal reforms to allow people in same-sex partnerships to take medical decisions for wounded soldiers and bury victims of the war. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
A drag queen holds a shield bearing Ukraine’s coat of arms at the pride march earlier today. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
Many of the soldiers at the march wore rainbow patches on their uniforms. Photograph: Nikoletta Stoyanova/Getty Images
Police separated the march from counter demonstrators. Organisers of the pride march faced hurdles in planning the rally. City authorities turned down a petition to allow it to be held at a metro station, and it was condemned by one of the main branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox church. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
Russian special forces freed two guards and killed several men linked to Islamic State who had taken them hostage at a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov earlier today.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the participants at this weekend’s peace summit had agreed to continue working in special groups afterwards and that once “action plans for peace” were ready, a path to a second summit would be open, Reuters reports.
“We agreed to start to work in special after-summit groups on specific ideas, proposals and developments that can restore security in various aspects,” the leader told a joint news conference.
“When the action plans for peace are ready and when every step is worked out, the path will be opened for the second peace summit.”
Canada plans meeting to tackle human cost of Ukraine war, Trudeau says
Canada plans to host a gathering of foreign ministers in the coming months to advance work on the human cost of the war in Ukraine, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said.
Trudeau was speaking alongside Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other leaders at the closing of this weekend’s Ukraine peace summit.
Some more detail about the countries that did – and did not – sign up to that final communique, according to AP.
Brazil, which attended the summit as an “observer” country, did not sign on, but Turkey — which has sought a role as intermediary between Russia and Ukraine — did.
As reported earlier, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates — which were represented by foreign ministers or lower-level envoys — were among those that did not sign onto the final document.
Leaders have been delivering their final remarks as this weekend’s Ukraine peace summit draws to a close.
While some key developing nations opted not to sign the final communique that reiterated Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the vast majority of the more than 90 participating countries did.
Viola Amherd, the Swiss president who hosted the event, told the final news conference that the fact that the “great majority” of participants agreed to the final document “shows what diplomacy can achieve.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the “first steps toward peace” at the meeting, and said the joint communique remains “open for accession by everyone who respects the UN Charter.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive commission, said the conference was rightly called “Path to Peace” because peace won’t be achieved in a single step.
“It was not a peace negotiation because Putin is not serious about ending the war. He is insisting on capitulation. He is insisting on ceding Ukrainian territory – even territory that today is not occupied by him,” she said. “He is insisting on disarming Ukraine, leaving it vulnerable to future aggression. No country would ever accept these outrageous terms.”
As many countries celebrate Father’s Day today, the Guardian has published four letters from fathers on the frontline, who share their love, fears and dreams for their children.
Below is an excerpt of a letter Danylo Khomutovsky, a driver and frontline medic with Hospitallers, a volunteer group in Ukraine, wrote to his children, Lera* and Sasha*. You can read the full piece here.
Dear Lera and Sasha,
… The weather in eastern Ukraine is terrible. Our vehicles got stuck in the mud and it’s risky in the forest. The Russians shot at us with artillery. My commander Borsuk didn’t even flinch – he said it was far away – but I ducked in fear …
I am counting the days – it is just three weeks to go until you and your mother arrive to see me. It’s a short wait compared with the months we’ve already been apart. I am excited to see how you’ve grown and who you are becoming. I truly believe you have a gift for mathematics and, away from Ukraine and this terrible war, you will get to use it.
We’ll go trout fishing soon and eat our catch. We will climb Mount Pikui together, like we used to before the war. Soon the connection will be better and I will be able to call to read you a bedtime story.
Please tell your mother that I love her and that I am well and I yearn to be with you both. I love you both deeply, and can’t wait to hug you tightly.
Kisses and love,
Dad
* Names have been changed to protect their identities
A Russian soldier has said his country’s army is suffering heavy losses in its offensive in Kharkiv, Pjotr Sauer reports.
Anton Andreev, a Russian soldier from the fifth company of the 1009th regiment, painted a bleak picture of Russia’s offensive in the Ukrainian northern region of Kharkiv.
His unit had been decimated, he said, with only 12 out of 100 soldiers still alive as they came under constant Ukrainian fire and drones in Vovchansk, a prime target of Russia’s advances.
“They just chop us up. We are sent under machine guns, under drones in daylight, like meat. And commanders just shout ‘forward and forward’,” Andreev said in a video message.
You can read Pjotr’s full report at the link below.
Ukraine peace summit says 'dialogue between all parties' needed to end war
While key players including India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates opted out of signing the final communique from this weekend’s Ukraine peace summit, 80 of the 90 or so countries in attendance did sign up to the document.
The communique reiterated that Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” should be respected in any peace deal to end the war, as they said “dialogue between all parties” would be necessary for a lasting settlement.
The vast majority of countries also backed a call for the full exchange of captured soldiers and return of deported Ukrainian children.
“We believe that reaching peace requires the involvement of and dialogue between all parties,” the document stated.
It added: “We reaffirm our commitment to ... the principles of sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of all states, including Ukraine, within their internationally recognised borders.”
More than 90 countries had gathered in the Swiss resort of Burgenstock for the summit, dedicated to discussing Kyiv’s proposals for a route out of the conflict. Moscow was not invited and has rejected the summit as “absurd” and pointless.
The final document also called for all prisoners of war to be released in a “complete exchange” and for all Ukrainian children who had been “deported and unlawfully displaced” to be returned to Ukraine.
Working groups at the summit also addressed the issues of global food security and nuclear safety. And the countries also called for Ukraine to have “full sovereign control” over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Saudi Arabia, India, South Africa and others opt out of Ukraine declaration
Saudi Arabia, India, South Africa, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates were among countries participating at a summit on peace for Ukraine that did not sign a final communique, the Swiss government has said, Reuters reports.
Switzerland, which hosted the summit, said over 90 countries took part in the talks, and the vast majority of them signed up to the communique, according to a list which the Swiss organisers posted at the close of proceedings.
The support of western and other leaders at a Swiss summit on peace for Ukraine demonstrates that the rule of international law can be restored, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after the two-day meeting in Buergenstock.
“I hope that we can achieve results as soon as possible,” he told the plenary. “We’ll prove to everyone in the world that the UN charter can be restored to full effectiveness.”
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday dismissed a peace proposal presented by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin as unreasonable, saying meeting Moscow’s demands would make Kyiv even more vulnerable to further aggression.
“Not only does Ukraine have to give up the territory that Russia currently occupies but Ukraine has to leave additional sovereign Ukrainian territory,” Sullivan told western and other leaders gathered at the Swiss resort of Buergenstock to explore a path towards peace for Ukraine.
He noted that Kyiv would also be bound to disarm under the Russian proposal “so that it is vulnerable to future Russian aggression down the road”.
“No responsible nation can say that this is a reasonable basis for peace. It defies the UN charter, it defies basic morality, it defies basic common sense,” Sullivan said.
