FILE: Switzerland - 2023 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of national flag of Switzerland, buildings

Washington D.C., USA - June 18, 2024 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Anton Fedyashin, associate professor, History Department, American University (starting with shot 1/partially overlaid with shots 3-8):
"The Global South (or) the global majority sees this war as a war of NATO expansion, not as a war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine. And in that sense, the Global South doesn't see any reason for it to take very strong positions, especially at its own cost and the cost of its people and its economic performance. The Global South is looking at what is happening in Europe where economies are slowing down and people are seriously talking about the de-industrialization of some of the most productive European economies, (with) Germany being first and foremost. And I understand why the South Africans, the Brazilians, the Indians are rightfully asking themselves the question: Why would we sever our economic relations with Russia when it will come at a cost to our own population over a war that is ultimately between NATO and Russia? And so, I think you saw that being manifested at this peace conference."

++SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++
FILE: London, UK - April 19, 2024 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Various of street view, traffic, pedestrians

FILE: Berlin, Germany - January 2024 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Street view, traffic

FILE: Berlin, Germany - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Reichstag building, national flags of Germany, EU flag

FILE: Moscow, Russia - December 2015 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Various of Russian Defense Ministry building; national flag of Russia

FILE: Kiev, Ukraine - March 29, 2019 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
7. National flag of Ukraine

FILE: Kiev, Ukraine - Dec 10, 2018 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Ukrainian parliament building; national flag of Ukraine
++SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

Location Unknown - Recent (Russian Defense Ministry - No access Chinese mainland)
9. Various of firing

Washington D.C., USA - June 18, 2024 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Anton Fedyashin, associate professor, History Department, American University:
"And one more thing just about the document. The intentions may be good, but unfortunately for Ukraine, again, it has absolutely no binding legal authority. This is not a UN Security Council resolution."

FILE: Kiev, Ukraine - May 18, 2017 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. Various of cityscape

Global South countries' refusal to sign a peace communique at the recent Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland was down to concerns over causing economic self-harm through severing ties with Russia and not wishing to get involved in a "war of NATO expansion", according to a U.S. scholar.

The two-day Summit on Peace in Ukraine concluded on Sunday at the Swiss mountaintop resort of Buergenstock, and saw Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeking more international support at the conference which gathered around 100 states.

Russia, however, was not invited, with a Kremlin spokesman saying on Monday the summit produced "zero" results. Several countries from the Global South, including India, Indonesia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia, also did not sign the final statement drafted at the conference.

Speaking to the China Global Television Network (CGTN) on Tuesday, Anton Fedyashin, an associate professor at the History Department of the American University in Washington, D.C., gave his assessment on the summit.

Fedyashin noted that the Global South, which he said in terms of population size represents the 'global majority', sees the conflict as "a war of NATO expansion", and said that many countries are reluctant to inflict damage on their own economies and people.

"In that sense, the Global South doesn't see any reason for it to take very strong positions, especially at its own cost and the cost of its people and its economic performance. The Global South is looking at what is happening in Europe where economies are slowing down and people are seriously talking about the de-industrialization of some of the most productive European economies, (with) Germany being first and foremost. And I understand why the South Africans, the Brazilians, the Indians are rightfully asking themselves the question: Why would we sever our economic relations with Russia when it will come at a cost to our own population over a war that is ultimately between NATO and Russia? And so, I think you saw that being manifested at this peace conference," he said.

Fedyashin also believes that the document drawn up at the summit will ultimately deliver no real outcome to improve the current situation.

"The intentions may be good, but unfortunately for Ukraine, again, it has absolutely no binding legal authority. This is not a UN Security Council resolution," he said.