“They are fooling their heads”: political scientist Zharikhin assessed the prospects for the Malta summit on Ukraine

Zelensky, in his Saturday evening address, revealed new details about the planned summit to discuss the Ukrainian “peace formula” in Malta. He stated that more than 50 countries will take part, and Turkey is already among the agreed guests. “Prominent states of the world will be represented—the list of participants is actually growing every day,” Zelensky said. However, the specific list is not disclosed. One thing is clear: as usual, Russia is not among the invitees. “MK” talks about the upcoming summit and tries to understand whether these meetings to discuss the “peace formula” lead to any changes.

The summit became known after an official statement by the Ministry of Foreign, European Affairs and Trade in Malta. “Next week’s meetings are the most concrete support a country like Malta can provide to keep the Ukrainian case at the top of the international agenda,” the country’s foreign minister said. The summit will take place from October 28 to 29.

Before this, it was reported that the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Ermak, had agreed to hold negotiations in Malta. Ukrainian media noted that he, in particular, plans to hold an international meeting of political and national security advisers.

The summit will traditionally discuss the “peace formula,” which was first proposed by Zelensky at the December G20 summit. It consists of 10 points, including: restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, withdrawal of Russian troops, exchange of prisoners in the “all for all” format, preventing escalation, fixing the end of the conflict. Roughly speaking, Russia will have to return all territories, pay reparations and apologize profusely.

This meeting will be a continuation of the July summit in Copenhagen and the August one in Jeddah. The idea of ​​these summits is that they should ultimately lead to a “grand peace summit”, at which a peaceful solution to the conflict will be formulated. Also, according to the plan, the countries of the Global South, which currently occupy neutral positions, will join in supporting Ukraine. Neutral countries actually join the summits. For example, China joined the meeting in the UAE and recalled its “peace formula.” It lies in the fact that military clashes must immediately cease, and the issue of territories be resolved through peaceful negotiations. Naturally, Ukraine was not happy with this option and caused tension at the meeting. After all, you will have to discuss something with Russia and sit down at the negotiating table, and not just take all the territories for yourself and receive reparations.

In general, based on the results of the past two summits, a whole lot has happened… nothing. All meetings are a continuous discussion of theoretical plans for resolving the conflict. It is quite possible that one of the main reasons for such unproductiveness is that they do not invite one of the most important participants in what is happening – Russia. But inviting Russia will not be in the rules of the Ukrainian regime. This is how the level of diplomacy has changed dramatically: if at the Malta summit 30 years ago Gorbachev and Bush shook hands as a sign of the end of the Cold War, now everything has come down to Zelensky’s attempt to come to an agreement, apparently with his own reflection.

We asked the deputy of the Institute of CIS Countries, Vladimir Zharikhin, what the purpose of the summits is and whether the meeting in Malta will be any different from its predecessors.

— This is not the first meeting of countries in the summit format. What is the purpose of these meetings if no real decisions are made after them?

“These meetings perform an important function: they portray to the Ukrainian people, who, in general, strive for reconciliation, that “we are working, we are working on a peace treaty.” People are being fooled because it is clear that without Russia no peace negotiations will work. But this is portrayed as constructive actions by Ukraine. Although negotiating without Russia is in fact absolutely destructive and, I would say, demonstratively senseless actions. But they believe that some part of the population will believe that they are striving for peace, but Russia does not want peace. They don’t even let the population know who exactly is participating in these summits. The main thing is that Ukraine is participating.

— Is the goal of involving the countries of the Global South in the Ukrainian issue really being fulfilled?

— Let’s just say that these countries are divided into two categories: one category sends the Americans with this idea and refuses to participate, and the other politely participates, but at the same time does not take any actions against Russia and does not join the sanctions.

— What are the prospects for the summit in Malta? Are there any prerequisites for this meeting to be different from the two that have already taken place?

“Now this meeting will be held under the auspices of calming not only the Ukrainian population, but also the countries of Europe, which are already tired of this whole story. But the work will follow the old pattern: “We are already holding the third conference, there is already great progress, but, unfortunately, military operations continue.” In general, this frank, terry demagoguery will be repeated.