Index – Abroad – How much support did Zelensky collect in Europe last week?

When Index asked what areas were covered by the visit of the Ukrainian head of state, Sándor Seremet, researcher at the Eurasian Center of János Neumann University and senior researcher at the Hungarian Institute of Foreign Affairs, said that Volodymyr Zelenskyi participated in several international forums before the peace summit in Switzerland. One of the main goals of this was to persuade as many countries and leaders as possible to represent themselves at the forum, since, despite the truly significant efforts of Ukrainian diplomats, the number of participants has steadily decreased compared to those originally invited, and at the same time the countries that confirmed their participation indicated a lower and lower level of representation.

Zelenskyi’s first trip was to Berlin, where the URC2024 conference on reconstruction in Ukraine took place early last week. The purpose of the two-day meeting was to provide financial support to Ukraine, provide military equipment, rebuild Ukrainian energy and record various bilateral agreements. According to this, a total of 110 international agreements were signed with Ukraine over the course of two days in Berlin, worth around 16 billion euros.

The largest package was tendered for a project aimed at the sustainability and stability of small and medium-sized enterprises, with a total commitment of 7 billion euros. The second package includes guarantee and support agreements concluded within the framework of the investment component of the UkraineFacility program, with a total value of 1.4 billion euros. The third largest package is aimed at supporting the Ukrainian energy network within the framework of the G7+ coordination group, worth more than 1 billion dollars.

But in addition, other contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars were concluded, so, for example, Ukraine signed 23 memorandums with Japanese partners, and on the first day of the meeting they announced the creation of the Skills Alliance, an alliance of about 50 institutions for the training and retraining of Ukrainians, which according to the plans, around 700 million euros will be allocated over the next three years. And the German government about 100 million euros separates for health programs in Ukraine, especially mental and psychosocial rehabilitation.

The expert noted that several countries have announced that they will hand over new weapons to Ukraine. These include the Patriot, Iris-T SLM, Gepard systems, missiles and artillery ammunition, among others.

At the G7 summit, subsidies to Ukraine also declined

At the G7 summit in Italy in the second half of the week Zelensky received additional support. At the forum, the Ukrainian president signed two 10-year security agreements signed. One with the United States, the other with Japan. The latter promised to provide Ukraine with about 4.5 billion dollars during 2024. Kiev can count as a success the fact that a decision was made that Ukraine will receive $50 billion in aid from the interest on frozen Russian funds, which can be used not only to finance the budget, but also for humanitarian and military purposes.

At the same time, Sándor Seremet indicated that the situation is not so simple, because the sum is the G7 members – the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan –, and by the European Union consists of loans granted. The loans will be secured by future interest from frozen Russian assets. These will have to be repaid either from interest or from reparations to be paid by Russia.

Swiss peace summit – half a success

The Swiss peace summit planned for two days has been halved with results closed. Kyiv made serious efforts in order to convince as many of the countries of the Global South as possible to the 10-point Ukrainian on the correctness and acceptability of the peace plan. The process was apparently unsuccessful, as only three of these were discussed at the Swiss meeting – nuclear safety, food safety and humanitarian issues, the latter primarily affecting the exchange of prisoners.

Critical points such as the withdrawal of Russian troops beyond Ukraine’s 1991 borders or holding the Russians accountable were left off the agenda. Some experts believe that Kiev wanted to make the final declaration signed at the end of the forum more acceptable, which, by the way, was not signed by many of those present. China did not participate in the forum, and as a result a number of states canceled their participation, although Kiev said many did so under Russian pressure.

Nevertheless, it was repeatedly said at the Swiss peace summit that Russia must also be included in the process for settlement, which was acknowledged by many Western leaders, including Olaf Scholz. Compared to the previous position, according to which only military victory over Russia should be achieved, this current situation represents a significant change. Despite the fact that the Ukrainian peace summit cannot be called a complete failure, the results were much more modest than expected. It turned out that Zelenskyi’s peace formula is considered feasible and feasible even among Western supporters, said Sándor Seremet, concluding his assessment.

(Cover photo: Ursula von der Leyen, Viola Amherd and Volodymyr Zelensky in Burgenstock, Lucerne, Switzerland on June 16, 2024. Photo: Dursun Aydemir / Anadolu / Getty Images)

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