Gaza war puts Ukraine peace summit at risk - WSJ

The conflict in Israel has not only diverted the world's attention from Russia's aggression in Ukraine, but also undermines Kyiv's efforts to attract new allies and organize a peace process.

Source. The Wall Street Journal writes about it.

After conferences in Denmark, Saudi Arabia, and Malta, Ukrainian and European officials hoped to convene a summit of world leaders by the end of the year to discuss the peace formula proposed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

But, according to Western diplomats, this is now unlikely.

The process of discussing the conditions for peace in Ukraine began in the summer. The second conference, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was attended by officials from more than 40 countries, including China. It was decided to create several working groups, and representatives of dozens of countries, including BRICS members India, Brazil, and South Africa, spent the following months discussing the basic principles on which peace talks should be based.

Ukraine and its allies hoped to involve major neutral countries (Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and even China) in formulating and endorsing the principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty, political independence of states, and the need to avoid the use of force to resolve conflicts.

However, Israel's war with Hamas complicated the process, creating new contradictions in relations between the West and the leading states of the Arab world, which Ukraine wanted to win over to its side.

According to the newspaper, the shadow of the conflict in Israel hung over the Malta conference held in late October, according to people who participated in it. Although representatives of more than 60 countries and organizations attended, China ignored the meeting, and a number of other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, sent lower-level delegations.

"Western diplomats at the UN say they will have a hard time gaining support for Ukraine in the developing world in the coming months," says Richard Gowen of the Crisis Group. "Russia is spreading propaganda about the double standards of the United States. moscow sees this situation as an opportunity to reverse the roles with Washington.

The conflict in Israel has wiped out months of work to bring developing countries to Kyiv's side as Western countries tried to portray Russia as a violator of international law responsible for civilian deaths and a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine, the Financial Times wrote. The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is being compared to the Ukrainian situation and the Western countries, which have largely supported Israel, are being accused of hypocrisy.