A third round of talks supported by Ukraine to end the Russian invasion begins this Saturday in Malta with representatives from around fifty countries, in the absence of Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes the two-day meeting, which follows similar meetings this summer in Jeddah and Copenhagen, will win support for his 10-point plan to end the war sparked by Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Diplomatic advisers from around fifty countries as well as international institutions are expected to attend, more than the around 40 nations that attended the Saudi summit in August. “This meeting is a strong signal that unity in Ukraine will be maintained,” said head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriy Iermak.
Zelensky is pushing ahead with his 10-point peace plan that calls for Russia to withdraw all its troops outside Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. But Russia – which proclaimed the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022 and that of Crimea in 2014 – rejected any agreement that would involve ceding these territories.