International Desk

World leaders on Sunday backed Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity, and the need for eventual talks with Russia on ending the war -- but left the key questions of how and when unresolved.

More than two years after Russia invaded, leaders and top officials from more than 90 states spent the weekend at a Swiss mountainside resort for a two-day summit dedicated to resolving the largest European conflict since World War II.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the diplomatic "success" of the event, which took place without Russia, and said the path was open for a second peace summit, with a view to ending the war with a just and lasting settlement.

But he told a closing press conference that "Russia and their leadership are not ready for a just peace".
"Russia can start negotiations with us even tomorrow without waiting for anything -- if they leave our legal territories," he said. Moscow meanwhile doubled down on its demand for Kyiv's effective surrender as a starting point for negotiations. - Sovereignty and independence - "Reaching peace requires the involvement of and dialogue between all parties," said the summit's final communique, supported by the vast majority of countries that attended the summit at the Burgenstock complex overlooking Lake Lucerne.

The document also reaffirmed a commitment to the "sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states, including Ukraine, within their internationally recognised borders". It said any threat or use of nuclear weapons in the war was "inadmissible", and food security "must not be weaponised".

The declaration also urged a full exchange of prisoners of war and the return to Ukraine of "all deported and unlawfully displaced children", and other unlawfully detained Ukrainian civilians.

But not all attendees backed the joint communique, with India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates among those who did not appear on a list of states backing it. Though the declaration committed countries to taking "concrete steps" in future to "further engagement of the representatives of all parties", the way to bring Russia into the process remained unclear. Swiss President Viola Amherd, hosting the summit, admitted "the road ahead is long and challenging."

"China could help us," Zelensky told reporters, adding that though it has close ties with the Kremlin, "Ukraine never said that China is our enemy". "I always say that Ukraine has only one enemy: Putin."