Self-Exiled Chechen Activist Says His Relatives Forced To Go To War In Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said on August 7 that talks over the weekend in Saudi Arabia discussed no other peace initiative than the one put forth by Ukraine and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting within about six weeks.

“We will hold another meeting within a month, month-and-a-half and we will move toward [holding] a summit,” Andriy Yermak told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv.

Officials from around 40 countries, including China, the United States, and European countries, took part in the talks.

Yermak, who headed the Ukrainian delegation, said all delegates at the talks had fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity.

Yermak promoted the Ukrainian peace formula at the talks. Zelenskiy himself has touted the set of 10 principles that Kyiv wants to serve as the basis for peace during recent visits to European and NATO-member countries.

Observers have said the most important points of the peace plan are those that demand respect for the UN Charter and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the talks in Saudi Arabia didn’t have “the slightest added value,” because Moscow wasn’t invited. Without Russia’s participation and without taking into account Moscow’s interests, the meeting was pointless, a ministry statement said.

It repeated previous assurances that Russia was open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that ends the war and is ready to respond to serious proposals.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy, once again ruled out Moscow’s previous demands, saying they would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.

“Any scenario of a cease-fire and freezing of the war in Ukraine in the current disposition will mean only one thing — Russia’s actual victory and Putin’s personal triumph,” Podolyak said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

He said earlier in an interview with RFE/RL that Russian forces must fully withdraw from the occupied areas and there would be no compromise on that.

“The most difficult thing is always the discussion of the issue that Russia should leave the territory of Ukraine,” he said.

Hanna Hopko, who previously headed the committee on foreign policy in the Ukrainian parliament, said the talks in Saudi Arabia pointed to the “deepening of the isolation” of Russia. She said Ukraine needed this along with “tougher measures to counter Russian aggression,” including more weapons, financial aid, and more pressure on Russia.

“Ukraine wants more support, and not only transatlantic support or in the Ramstein format, but at the level of the whole world,” she said, referring to the contact group formed to coordinate Western military support for Ukraine.

Hopko told RFE/RL in an interview that China’s participation at the talks was important.

“The longer the war lasts, the more China sees that Russia has no chance of winning,” she said, adding that Russia was getting more and more isolated, and “China understands that Russia is losing.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on August 7 issued a statement saying China would be an “objective and rational voice” at any international multilateral forums and “actively promote peace talks.”

The statement came after the ministry said earlier that the international talks in Saudi Arabia had helped “to consolidate international consensus.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, telling him that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.

Beijing and Moscow have maintained a close bilateral relationship in recent years as both countries’ relations with the West have worsened.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP