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00:00Well, let's go to Switzerland next. A peace summit underway right now in the Swiss resort
00:04above Lake Lucerne, aimed at, in principle, ending the war in Ukraine. But with Russia,
00:10the chief belligerent not there, a more realistic immediate goal seems to be to try to map out
00:14the first steps towards peace. China, another key player, isn't attending either, but around
00:1990 countries have sent high-level delegations. Let's bring in Gulliver Craig. Let's go to
00:24our correspondent in Kyiv. Gulliver, reading the room right now and looking at what's going
00:31on, has anything significant happened so far? How are you seeing this?
00:38Well, all we've had so far really has been some bilateral meetings between Volodymyr
00:44Zelensky and guests who arrived earlier, and then the ceremony of welcoming all the guests,
00:48which was about an hour ago. Looking at the parade of heads of state and heads of government
00:53arriving, I actually came to the conclusion that the Ukrainians are going to be able to
00:58call this a success, because it is not often that you get 56 heads of state and government
01:02together in one place, 30 other countries represented at ministerial level. Yes, the
01:07Chinese snubbed it. Indonesia has only sent an ambassador. Brazil also only represented
01:14by its ambassador to Switzerland. India, though, in the end, did decide to take part at a lower
01:20level, but sent a high-ranking foreign office official there from India. And you've got
01:25presidents from Africa, Ivory Coast, Libya, Kenya, all represented at the highest level,
01:32and South America, in particular Javier Milet, the Argentine president. Volodymyr Zelensky
01:37went to his inauguration in Argentina recently. When he arrived, there was a big hug between
01:42the two men. It was only confirmed at the last minute that he would actually be able
01:46to make it. And so all of this means that I think that although it's fallen short of
01:51what they were hoping for the Ukrainians, because they really wanted Chinese participation,
01:55they're still going to be able to say it's a success. But what we're hearing is that
01:59the communique that will be announced tomorrow is still under preparation. It's not a done
02:04deal. And there are really going to be some tough negotiations tomorrow. And a lot will
02:08depend on what the countries are all able to agree on. It's possible that not everyone
02:13will sign it.
02:14Ksia Skalovy, you obviously don't talk about success in terms of a plan towards peace,
02:18but a success of perhaps the optics of those who are there willing to hear out President
02:23Zelensky.
02:26The Ukrainians have been very clear that this is an inaugural summit, that this is a first
02:30step. They've been dialing down their ambitions in recent days as well, placing the emphasis
02:35on the fact that they're going to talk first of all about the least controversial aspect
02:38of Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, which are return of Ukrainian prisoners and Ukrainian
02:43children who've been abducted. Nuclear safety, three nuclear power plants in Ukraine are
02:49operational. One is not operational and under Russian occupation. Huge fears about those.
02:54And also food exports, making sure that Ukraine's able to keep supplies flowing out from its
03:01ports. Those are likely to be things that people can agree on. What's more controversial
03:06is Volodymyr Zelensky's insistence that all Russian forces must leave Ukraine and return
03:10to the 1991 borders. There, his task is trying to convince a sceptical world that that is
03:15still a realistically achievable goal. The Ukrainians, I believe, think it is. I think
03:21though they probably will be prepared to negotiate at some point in the future going forward,
03:25but definitely not on the basis of what Volodymyr Putin announced yesterday, which is Ukraine
03:30not just accepting Russian control over the parts of the country it already controls,
03:35but ceding significant amounts of more territory and colluding huge cities like Zaporizhia
03:40to Russia. That's absolutely, obviously unacceptable. Volodymyr Putin also yesterday denied ever
03:45having tried to take Kiev, which is obviously completely untrue. So I think that Volodymyr
03:50Putin's statements yesterday actually probably helped the Ukrainians in their argument that
03:55they were right not to invite Russia to this inaugural summit because Russia's clearly
03:58not prepared to negotiate at this stage on any kind of serious basis. It's interesting,
04:04Finally, Gulliver, a number of delegations, including India's delegation, talking to press
04:08about they're not taking on all of these, the 10-point plan of Ukraine. They are there
04:13to listen. I think you mentioned one of the issues, food security being big to them, nuclear
04:17security. And I think for Ukraine as well, the idea of the return of children transferred
04:22from Ukraine to Russia. You talk a little bit about it. If we talk again tomorrow, once
04:28the communiqué is out, what would you predict to be perhaps the best hope, the best takeaway
04:32for Ukraine from these two days?
04:35Oh, this is a difficult question. I suppose that there are countries who will step forward
04:41and say they're willing to mediate for the return of children and political prisoners.
04:45Already there have been successful mediation efforts, in particular by the United Arab
04:50Emirates, getting large numbers of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners swapped and returned.
04:57In terms of the nuclear power plants, I mean, something that's been mooted at some point
05:02has been the possibility of sending blue helmets in to protect them. But I don't know
05:07if that's likely to come out of this meeting. I'm afraid I'm looking forward to seeing what
05:13they come up with tomorrow as much as you are.
05:15Really good to talk to you as always. Gulliver Craig, our correspondent in Kyiv.