Bürgenstock (Switzerland), June 15 (EFE).- The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, assured this Saturday that the proposal of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, for a ceasefire in Ukraine is not a negotiation, but would mean the kyiv’s “surrender” to what it considers “shameless” violations by Russia of the United Nations Charter.
“Yesterday, Putin presented a proposal, but we have to tell the truth: he is not calling for (peace) negotiations, he is asking for surrender. The United States is on Ukraine’s side, not out of charity, but because it is our strategic interest,” Harris said at the beginning of the first plenary session of the peace summit on Ukraine, which is being held in Switzerland.
Putin assured on Friday that he will order an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine as soon as kyiv withdraws its troops from the four regions annexed by Moscow in the east and south of the country and abandons its plans to join NATO.
Harris said that the United States defends Ukraine’s right to sovereignty and borders and respect for international norms established in the United Nations Charter, which Russia, he added, “has shamelessly violated, for two and a half years” invasion in Ukraine.
“If the world does not respond when an aggressor invades his neighbor, other aggressors will undoubtedly feel emboldened. It leads to the possibility of a war of conquest and chaos that threatens all nations, not order and stability,” said the vice president, the highest-ranking representative sent by the United States to this summit of 101 countries and international organizations.
The Government of Switzerland, host of the Ukraine Peace Summit, hopes that this meeting of world leaders “will serve to build trust and the first steps towards a path to peace,” although it acknowledged that it will not be an easy task.
Harris recalled that this meeting must serve to find common points that reject the Russian invasion, which began in February 2022, and guarantee energy and food security in the world, since Ukraine is an important actor in both issues.
“President Joe Biden and I will continue to support Ukraine, continue to impose costs on Russia, and work toward a just and lasting peace based on the principles of the United Nations Charter. “We agree that a practical benefit of this peace summit must be the increase in global energy and food security and that we cannot allow anything about the end of this war to be decided without Ukraine,” Harris summarized.
