KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelezniyskyy on Sunday appealed to President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to participate in an upcoming peace summit as his country struggles to stave off a relentless 27-month Russian invasion.
Moscow’s forces have made advances on the battlefield and stepped up air strikes on the city in recent weeks, and Kiev hopes that a June meeting in Switzerland will help increase international pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In an English-language video filmed in the ruins of a printing press destroyed on Thursday by Russian airstrikes, Zelenskiy said the summit would show “who in the world really wants to end war.”
“I appeal to world leaders who are still aloof from the global effort of the World Peace Summit: the leader of the United States, President Biden, and the leader of China, President Xi Jinping,” he said.
“Please show leadership in promoting peace — not just a respite between attacks, but real peace.
Russia now says there is no point in a conference to which Moscow is not invited.
Zelenskiy’s comments came two days after a Russian intelligence source told Reuters that Putin was ready to end the Ukraine war with ceasefire talks that recognized current battle lines.
President Zelensky and his Ukrainian supporters say a ceasefire would only help Russia rearm and regroup.
Russia has been slowly but steadily expanding its influence in several parts of its vast eastern front in recent months and is attempting to advance further into the Kharkiv region in the northeast after a ground invasion launched earlier this month.
Zelenskiy told Reuters in an interview last week that it was important to have as many countries as possible at the table in peace talks, which Putin said he believed could turn Ukrainian demands for Russia to withdraw into an ultimatum to Moscow.
