Nations discuss children, nuclear safety at talks on peace in Ukraine taking place without Russia

OBBÜRGEN, Switzerland (AP) — Countries resumed talks Sunday on how to iron out issues of nuclear safety, prisoner exchanges and exports of food from Ukraine that have arisen due to Russia's two-year war there, and ways to bring peace to Ukraine — even though Moscow is not represented.

Leaders from many Western countries and others including Ecuador, Somalia and Kenya were meeting in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock to lay out their visions of what peace could look like in Ukraine one day. Many hope that Russia will join in one day, but say it needs to agree to respect Ukraine's territory — about one quarter of which it occupies.

“If we reverse, to a global system where the organizing principle is ‘might is right,’ the independence we enjoy today as free nations will be at serious risk," said Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, as leader's speeches continued for a second day. "This is an existential issue.”

Analysts say the two-day conference will likely have little concrete impact toward ending the war because the country leading and continuing it, Russia, was not invited — for now. Its key ally, China, which did not attend, and Brazil, which was on hand at the meeting as an “observer,” have jointly sought to plot alternative routes toward peace.