WORLD BRIEFING: June 15, 2024

Dozens of world leaders and thousands of soldiers and police have descended on the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock for a giant peace summit on Ukraine. More than 90 countries and global institutions are attending the event, which aims to discuss basic principles for ending the conflict in Ukraine. The Swiss hope that the Ukraine summit might produce the first tentative sketch marks for a peace process, some 28 months after Russia invaded its neighbour. It is the biggest gathering for Ukraine since the full-scale invasion. But with key players like China staying away, and Russian President Vladimir Putin issuing a new ultimatum - demanding Ukraine’s capitulation and calling that a peace proposal - expectations of significant progress are low. Russia has not been invited. For Ukraine, the mere fact this meeting is taking place is positive. Politicians in Kyiv have been hailing every confirmed participant as a gesture of support. For them, the giant summit should demonstrate to Moscow that the world stands on the side of Ukraine - and of international law. - BBC

According to Swiss officials, 100 delegations will attend the Ukrainian peace summit, including 57 heads of state and government from around the world. There are notable absentees, including China. Saudi Arabia is being represented by its foreign minister. Representation from the so-called global south regions are also on the low side. Already some media outlets are writing off the summit, with the Wall Street Journal headlining: Ukraine’s Global Diplomatic Flurry Fails to Outflank Russia As many world leaders skip Zelensky’s peace summit, some countries press Kyiv to seek direct talks with Kremlin.” The Journal’s Laurence Norman said: "I think there is a good chance that some of the non-Western countries will complicate matters by arguing that Ukraine should be willing to talk to Russia without preconditions."

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Vladimir Putin has said Russia will immediately cease fire and begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine in exchange for control of four frontline Ukrainian regions, a proposal immediately rejected by Kyiv. The Russian president’s conditions include areas Moscow has never occupied during its two-year invasion or from which it subsequently withdrew, as well as a pledge for Ukraine to never join Nato. Putin also seeks the lifting of western sanctions imposed in 2022 in response to his full-scale invasion. Ukraine said Putin’s proposal amounted to capitulation and would leave the country vulnerable to future attacks. “New territorial realities must be recognised,” Putin said in a speech to foreign policy officials on Friday. “All these basic principal conditions must be set through fundamental international agreements. Naturally, this involves the cancellation of all western sanctions against Russia.” Under Putin’s conditions, Russia would gain full control of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. Putin claimed to have annexed the regions despite only partly occupying them in the autumn of 2022. Putin demanded that Ukraine pledge to no longer seek Nato membership, a goal enshrined in the Ukrainian constitution and confirmed by the US-led military alliance though without a concrete timeline. The Russian president also called for Kyiv to never develop nuclear weapons and to pursue its “demilitarisation” and “denazification”, two vague goals Russia set out at the start of the invasion. Putin’s demands represent the most specific conditions he has set for a possible end to the war since he ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He made clear he would set out a maximalist position in any peace talks and fight on indefinitely if they were not met. - FT

President Biden has been “losing focus” during discussions at this week’s G7 summit in Italy, with one diplomatic insider saying the commander-in-chief is “the worst he has ever been.” Another attendee from a non-US delegation told the Sun Friday that the 81-year-old’s public missteps on the first day of the gathering were “embarrassing.” the president has stolen the spotlight with a series of bizarre actions, including giving Meloni an awkward salute upon greeting her Thursday and wandering away from his fellow leaders during a skydiving demonstration, forcing the host prime minister to chaperone him back to the group.

Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance faces wipeout in snap parliamentary elections as France’s Left-wing parties solidified a unity pact that could further hamper the French president’s chances. New projections suggested only about 40 pro-Macron MPs would reach the second round vote on July 7, in run-offs mainly between populist hard-Right or Left-wing candidates for the 577-strong assembly, according to two studies for Le Figaro and BFM TV. The findings suggest Mr Macron’s coup de poker to dissolve parliament and hold early elections to halt the rise of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) could end in electoral meltdown and see him a lame duck for the remaining three years of his presidency starting next month. Mr Macron’s camp hopes to flush out the extremes and cobble together a new democratic front of moderate parties once the dust has settled. The odds against this scenario look exceedingly high with little more than two weeks to go before round one on June 30. But by extrapolating results from last week’s European parliamentary election to the upcoming first round in the French legislative poll, RN would come first in 362 seats and the Left would come top in 211, according to Le Figaro’s calculations. - The Telegraph

The World Health Organization has raised the alarm about the escalating health crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the West Bank, where attacks on health infrastructure and increased restrictions on movement are obstructing access to health care. A spike in violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the war in Gaza started has resulted in the deaths of 521 Palestinians, including 126 children between 7 October 2023 and 10 June 2024. In addition, over 5200 people, 800 of them children, have been injured, adding to the growing burden of trauma and emergency care at already strained health facilities. As of 28 May, WHO has documented 480 attacks on health care in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, resulting in 16 deaths and 95 injuries. The attacks affected 54 health facilities, 20 mobile clinics and 319 ambulances. Fifty-nine percent of the attacks occurred in the cities of Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus. They include attacks on health infrastructure and ambulances, detention of health workers and patients, obstruction of their access to health facilities, use of force on health workers and militarized searches of ambulances and staff. The closure of checkpoints, arbitrary obstructions, and detentions of health workers, rising insecurity, as well as the siege and closure of entire towns and communities has made movement within the West Bank increasingly restricted, impeding access to health facilities. Extensive infrastructure and housing damage, particularly in the northern West Bank, have compounded the situation by obstructing access for ambulances and first-aid responders.