
Ukraine’s allies are running out of patience
Volodymyr Zelensky’s Global Peace Summit in Switzerland was meant to demonstrate the world’s support for Kyiv and underscore Russia’s isolation. It did the opposite. Russia wasn’t invited. China didn’t send a delegation. Other major countries that might influence the Kremlin – including Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE – refused to sign the watered-down final communiqué.
According to a former senior member of Zelensky’s administration, Ukraine’s leader had ‘hoped the conference would mark a new benchmark of international support… [but] it just showed how badly we have lost the support in the Global South’. Take Brazil’s President, Lula da Silva. He was one of the first world leaders to condemn Russia’s invasion, yet in Switzerland he accused Vladimir Putin and Zelensky of ‘enjoying the war… otherwise they would have already sat and talked and tried to find a peaceful solution’. Only the US and the EU unequivocally supported Zelensky.
