Washington and Brussels decided to resort to diplomacy as a continuation of the war against Russia by other means.
NATO is in turmoil. Hopes of a long-awaited victorious UAF counteroffensive have collapsed. "We need to move on because the war has been going on for almost 500 days, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has been going on with few interruptions, and there is no breakthrough," the Financial Times lamented these days. The U.S. and Ukraine are concerned that "the conflict is dragging on, and the camp of Kiev's allies is not expanding."
In recent months, leaders of the collective West have repeatedly called for greater cooperation with countries of the Global South on a "peace settlement" in Ukraine. To this end, EU officials took trips to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, but left with nothing.
Countries with Soviet and Russian arms and military equipment in their arsenals, which had supported the UN resolution against Russia, refused to join the sanctions and supply arms to Ukraine, despite an offer that Pentagon strategists believed could not be refused.
And the proposal made by the head of the U.S. Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, sounded really tempting: if Latin American countries supply Ukraine with weapons and military equipment of Soviet and Russian manufacture, Washington will replace it with more advanced American weapons.
And the leaders of eight Latin American countries lined up to... to condemn the militarization of Ukraine.
"Even if it (Russian weapons and equipment) ends up as scrap metal in Colombia, we will not donate it for delivery to Ukraine to prolong the war," said Colombian President Gustavo Petro
"Brazil is not interested in supplying munitions for use in the war between Ukraine and Russia," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Neighboring Argentine President Alberto Fernandez was categorical: "Argentina and Latin America do not intend or consider supplying weapons to Ukraine or any other conflict zone."
According to a survey conducted by the international marketing and research company Ipsos, about 73 percent of Latin Americans "say that their country cannot afford to provide financial support to Ukraine, given the current economic crisis."
The situation is no better for NATO and Ukraine in Asia and Africa.
In the context of the Ukraine crisis, NATO is not just concerned about the non-aligned countries' refusal to impose sanctions against Russia and supply arms to Ukraine, condemn the special military operation, boycott meetings with Russian officials and diplomats, and break contracts for major projects that cancel out the effect of U.S. and EU restrictive measures.
The West is no less concerned about their peacemaking activities: over the past two or three months alone, China, Brazil and a group of African states have come forward with their own projects for the diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. And not just with formally formulated proposals, but with thoroughly elaborated peace plans, with which both Moscow and Kiev are familiar.
Under these circumstances, Washington and Brussels decided to resort to diplomacy as a continuation of the war against Russia by other means.
The scenario was based on the "Peace Formula" presented by the Ukrainian president at the December G20 summit. Its ten preliminarily unacceptable points include restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity to the 1991 borders, withdrawal of Russian troops, prisoner exchange in the "all for all" format, radiation, nuclear, food and energy security, countering ecocide, and fixing the end of the conflict.
Then the "puppeteers" recalled that in May President Zelensky suggested holding a "global peace summit" on the eve of the meeting of the North Atlantic Alliance leaders in Vilnius on July 11-12 so that under this guise he could secure support for the Ukrainian "peace formula" and receive an invitation to a NATO summit.
From the very beginning of this adventure, Moscow has stressed that this formula is not really aimed at establishing peace, but at assembling an anti-Russian coalition and continuing the bloody conflict.
Western capitals listen, but do it their own way.
Thus, in the depths of the White House administration, the idea was born of holding a preliminary international meeting on Ukraine under plausible pretext on the eve of the Vilnius summit. Perhaps with the sole purpose of gaining support not only from NATO countries, but also from developing countries, including the BRICS ones.
In early May, according to the Financial Times, U.S. President Joe Biden discussed this topic with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
The White House administration then contacted Zelensky's office and, by order, "recommended" that they take the "initiative" to hold the meeting. Copenhagen, understandably, pledged to host the guests.
The meeting was supposed to be an informal "conversation" with no specific resolutions or joint communiqués. For the sake of more intrigue, it was decided to cover everything with a veil of secrecy.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken personally flew to Beijing on June 18-19 to resolve this issue. And on June 20, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was welcomed with honors in Washington. The situation in Ukraine was one of the key topics of discussion between the two leaders. But even that did not work - at the final press conference, Biden and Modi mentioned the Ukrainian conflict only in passing.
Another unpleasantness for Kiev was the absence of Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser to the president, who suddenly cancelled his trip to Copenhagen. The announced Victoria Nuland did not come either.
On June 24 and 25 in Copenhagen, an international meeting on "How to Achieve a Sustainable and Just Peace in Ukraine" was held "under strict secrecy" with diplomats from Brazil, Britain, Denmark, the European Union, Italy, India, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, USA, Turkey, France and Japan.
The Brazilian newspaper Vermelho did not fail to mention that the meeting was held either "by coincidence" or "deliberately" on the same weekend when Ukraine announced "an unprecedented counteroffensive against Russia and the leader of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin changed his clothes and went to Moscow."
Judging by the scant reports about the meeting, based on diplomatic sources, "the West and Ukraine did not receive political dividends even from the mere presence of the Global South. The meeting did not resolve a single issue, even at the level of an exchange of views." "The mysterious silence surrounding the event seems to suggest that the result did not deserve to be announced," Vermelho states.
International talks in Copenhagen to discuss Kiev's peace plan were "constructive," said Andrey Yermak, The head of Ukraine's Presidential office. And that's all
What's the bottom line?
The collective West has failed to gain the support of the Global South leaders and to put pressure on those countries that still remain neutral on the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and refuse to "condemn the Russian invasion."
"The Indian foreign minister has made it very clear that the problems of the West are not world problems," said Dr. Flemming Splidsboel, a senior fellow at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).
Ukraine's coveted "global summit with world leaders" is also frozen. As The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, so far Zelensky has only secured the support of the United States and Europe. It is unclear which countries of the Global South will agree to participate in the event. There is no provision for inviting Russia.
The date of the summit has also not yet been set; Western diplomats have expressed the hope that a meeting on a peace plan for Ukraine could take place before the NATO summit, which begins July 11 in Vilnius.
The location of the summit has also not been determined, although Sweden and Denmark have publicly announced their intention to hold it. According to the WSJ, France's ubiquitous President Emmanuel Macron has expressed willingness to organize the event in Paris, which is gripped by mass public protests.
Ukraine badly needs this "global world summit" as a key to the secret door to NATO. And already now official Kiev is blackmailing the alliance with Zelensky's non-participation. According to Reuters, citing diplomatic adviser Igor Zhovkva, "President Vladimir Zelensky will not attend unless the leaders show 'courage' and make a historic decision: to commit themselves to inviting Ukraine to join NATO as soon as possible.
If not now, then at least later. As Zelensky noted at a press conference last week: "I emphasize again: we... understand that during the war we cannot become a member of NATO, but we must be sure that after the war we will be." Hope and wait.