While the much-anticipated Ukrainian “counteroffensive” that started earlier this month has so far failed to produce any tangible results - aside from hundreds of Kiev militants killed and a large number of Western military hardware scrapped – it appears that Ukrainian leadership and its Western backers may be working towards some sort of a peace initiative.
According to German broadcaster ARD, “high-level international consultations” aimed at “facilitating peace talks for Ukraine” were held in Copenhagen last week.
Said meeting was reportedly attended by Western diplomats, as well as by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and by representatives of Global South powerhouses such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
The meeting was supposedly held at Kiev’s initiative and was meant to help the West garner the support of the aforementioned countries – all of them BRICS members – who so far remain neutral on the matter of the Ukrainian conflict.
The broadcaster also claimed that official peace talks may start as early as the next month, with the meeting in Copenhagen being touted as an “important step on the way to peace negotiations.”
It was not immediately clear, however, if Russia would be invited to these as-yet-hypothetical peace talks, especially considering the fact that the regime in Kiev imposed a legislative ban on negotiations with Moscow.
Meanwhile, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office thanked the Danish government for organizing the meeting in Copenhagen in a statement shared on Kiev's website, thus confirming that said meeting did indeed take place. That statement also contains mention that the “implementation of the Ukrainian peace formula” was discussed at the meeting.
The last attempt to reach a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict took place in March-April 2022, mere weeks after the launch of the Russian military operation. While it initially appeared that Moscow and Kiev might come to an accord, the talks ended up breaking down after the US and the UK pushed the Ukrainian leadership to continue hostilities.