Biden missing Ukraine talks would be ‘applauded’ by Putin, Zelenskyy says

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed the importance of President Biden attending the upcoming peace summit.
• The summit is aimed at garnering support to stop the war and put pressure on Russia, which currently occupies large parts of Ukraine.
• Although the United States has indicated its support, it is unclear whether Biden will attend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that if U.S. President Joe Biden skips a peace summit being hosted by Kyiv in Switzerland next month, Russian President Vladimir Putin would praise Biden’s absence.

Ukraine wants to invite as many countries as possible to agree on how to stop the war and put pressure on Russia, which occupies about a fifth of Ukrainian territory. The United States has voiced its support but has not said whether Biden will attend.

“I know that the United States supports the summit, but I don’t know to what extent it will support it,” the Ukrainian president said at a joint news conference with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo in Brussels on Tuesday.

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“(The peace summit) needs President Biden, as do other leaders who will be closely watching the U.S. response. Putin will have nothing but praise for Biden’s absence. He will personally praise him. And he’ll rise to the occasion.”

Zelenskiy on Sunday invited both Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, a close ally of Putin and the biggest beneficiary of the rift with the West, to attend the summit.

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Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has said the meeting is pointless.