Follow us on social

Diplomacy Watch: Ukraine seeks help with peace plan from India, UN

Diplomacy Watch: Ukraine seeks help with peace plan from India, UN

Kyiv’s proposal to end the war will face an uphill battle in the coming months.

Analysis | Europe

In a Monday phone call, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s help in promoting Kyiv’s peace plan for the ongoing conflict with Russia. 

The conversation came as India, which has dramatically expanded trade with Russia since the invasion, took over leadership of the G20. “It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India’s participation in its implementation,” Zelensky tweeted after the meeting.

For their part, Modi’s team said he “strongly reiterated his call for an immediate cessation of hostilities,” and emphasized the need for diplomacy in order to end the brutal war. New Delhi also declared its “support for any peace efforts” but stopped short of explicitly endorsing Zelensky’s proposal.

The call is the latest step in Ukraine’s rollout of its 10-point peace plan, which Kyiv says will be the center of a “peace summit” at some point in the next couple of months. Zelensky said last week that President Joe Biden agreed to support the proposal, though U.S. officials have yet to confirm that claim. Some notable demands include a full Russian withdrawal from Ukraine, including Crimea, and the creation of a special tribunal for Russian war crimes.

“The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit,” Kyiv’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told the Associated Press. “This is really about bringing everyone on board.”

There is, however, one significant exception to the guest list. Per Kuleba, Russia can only attend the summit after facing prosecution for war crimes. “They can only be invited to this step in this way,” Kuleba said, adding that he is also working to expel Moscow from the United Nations.

Russia quickly rejected the plan and reiterated its demand that Kyiv accept Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and attempted seizure of large swathes of eastern Ukraine. “As for the duration of the conflict, the ball is on the side of the [Kyiv] regime and Washington that stands behind its back,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “They may stop senseless resistance at any moment.”

The sharp differences between the warring parties suggest that the conflict will drag on well into the future, according to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

“I do believe that the military confrontation will go on, and I think we'll have still to wait for a moment in which serious negotiations for peace will be possible,” Guterres said.

In other diplomatic news related to the war in Ukraine:

— Russia announced Tuesday that it will not sell oil to countries that attempt to enforce a price cap agreed by Western countries, according to Al Jazeera. The decision sets Moscow up for a clash with the G7 and the European Union, both of which agreed to only purchase Russian at $60 per barrel — a significant drop from the current market price of $78 per barrel.

— In his Christmas homily, Pope Francis renewed his call for peace in Ukraine and lamented the impact the war has had on innocent people around the world, according to AP News. “Let us also see the faces of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, who are experiencing this Christmas in the dark and cold, far from their homes due to the devastation caused by 10 months of war,” the pontiff said, noting that the conflict has put “entire peoples at risk of famine, especially in Afghanistan and in the countries of the Horn of Africa.”

— A top Putin aide visited the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has faced months of intermittent shelling since Russian forces took control of it earlier this year, according to Reuters. The advisor “checked the safety of the facility and the working conditions of Rosatom employees,” according to a Russia-backed local leader.

— On Wednesday, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu visited Kyiv and pledged to support Ukraine through weapons transfers and maintenance for French arms already in the country, according to Al Arabiya. “France has chosen several ways to help Ukraine,” Lecornu said, adding that “maintenance of what has already been given to Ukraine is just as important as the new equipment.” So far, France has lagged behind its European peers in providing aid to Ukraine. This high-level visit could be an effort to undercut accusations that Paris is not doing enough to support Kyiv’s war effort.

U.S. State Department news:

The State Department did not hold a press briefing this week.


Analysis | Europe
POGO
Top image credit: Project on Government Oversight

The non-empires strike back

Military Industrial Complex

The Bunker appears originally at the Project on Government Oversight and is republished here with permission.

keep readingShow less
Trump Netanyahu
Top image credit: noamgalai / Shutterstock.com

Trump appears all in for Netanyahu's political survival

Middle East

On March 25, Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s government passed its long-delayed 2025 budget. Had the vote failed, it would have automatically triggered snap elections — an outcome Netanyahu appears politically incapable of surviving.

While Israel cited stalled hostage negotiations and ongoing security threats as reasons for ending the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza, Netanyahu’s decision to resume large-scale military operations just days before the vote also appeared aimed at shoring up support from far-right coalition partners such as Itamar Ben Gvir. The budget, framed explicitly by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as a “war budget,” includes record levels of defense spending and a dramatic increase in funding for Israeli public diplomacy, a nod to the government’s attempt to counteract ongoing international condemnation of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

keep readingShow less
JFK wanted to splinter CIA ‘into a thousand pieces.’ Why didn't he?
Top photo credit: Unredacted memo by Arthur Schlesinger (JFK files) and President John F. Kennedy, 1962 (public domain/Donald Cooksey)

JFK wanted to splinter CIA ‘into a thousand pieces.’ Why didn't he?

Washington Politics

When the final, declassified records from the John F. Kennedy assassination files were posted on the National Archives’ website last week, the first document researchers and reporters searched for was White House adviser Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s June 1961 memorandum to the president titled “CIA Reorganization.”

ABC News led its initial coverage on the release of the JFK papers with that document, quoting Schlesinger’s now unredacted, dramatic, statistics that showed that the "CIA today has nearly as many people under official cover overseas as [the] State [Department].” The New York Times also featured that document with a headline “A Kennedy aide worried that the C.I.A. threatened the State Department’s power.”

keep readingShow less

Trump transition

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.