After Bürgenstock: what the peace summit left behind

What did the Bürgenstock summit actually settle? Looking back at 18 June 2024, two days after the Global Peace Summit ended in Switzerland, the answer was still being weighed against the war it was meant to address.

The two-day gathering at the Bürgenstock Resort, dedicated to discussion of Ukraine's Peace Formula, ended on 16 June 2024. The formula is an initiative and diplomatic platform that Ukraine proposed to the world community to achieve a just conclusion to the war. The summit was formally called the Summit on Peace in Ukraine and was hosted by the Swiss president, Viola Amherd. It followed a series of four earlier international meetings. Representatives from 92 nations and 8 international organisations attended, while Russia did not participate.

The war continued alongside the diplomacy

The fighting did not pause for the talks. On 16 June 2024, the day the summit closed, Russia claimed to have captured the village of Zahirne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The claim was a reminder that the diplomatic track and the battlefield were moving separately.

Russia's absence from the summit mattered for what the meeting could be. A conference built around Ukraine's own framework, attended by dozens of states but not by the other party to the war, was a forum for building international alignment rather than for negotiating directly with Moscow.

Support for the practical needs of winter

On the same day, Norway announced 1.1 billion kroner (about US$103 million) to help Ukraine repair its energy infrastructure and secure its electricity supply before the winter. The pledge pointed to a concrete concern: keeping the power system functioning through the cold months ahead.

Life in Kyiv continued

Also on 16 June 2024, hundreds of LGBTQ+ members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and their supporters marched in central Kyiv. They demanded legal reforms for greater same-sex partnership rights, despite opposition from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and from counter-protesters. The march showed that debates about rights and legal change were continuing in the capital even during the war.

Reading the moment

Taken together, the events of 16 June 2024 show several layers of a country at war: a diplomatic effort seeking wide international backing, continued Russian claims of territorial gains, foreign money directed at energy resilience, and a civic demonstration in Kyiv. The summit's attendance figures gave Ukraine a visible show of international participation. Whether that would translate into movement toward ending the war was not something the events of those days settled.