Zelensky, who is making his first visit to the region since the start of the war in Ukraine, wrote on his Telegram account, “I will speak during the Arab League summit. I will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and hold other bilateral meetings,” according to AFP.
He said that his priorities during the visit would be “presenting our formula for peace, whose implementation must include the largest possible number of countries.”
“Another priority is to protect the Muslims of Ukraine” in the Crimea region, which Russia annexed in 2014, he added.
“Crimea was the first to suffer from the Russian occupation and most of those who face oppression in occupied Crimea are Muslims,” he added, according to the French agency.
Zelensky said in a tweet on Twitter that his goal is to “strengthen bilateral relations and Ukraine’s relations with the Arab world,” noting that among other topics he mentioned were Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a “peace formula” and cooperation in the field of energy, as reported by the Associated Press. Press.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plays an important role, and we are ready to take our cooperation to a new level,” Reuters quoted him on Twitter immediately after his arrival.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has mediated in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict before.
And last year, he scored a diplomatic victory when he helped secure the release of 10 foreigners detained by Russia in Ukraine. The move appears to have been possible thanks to his close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky had arrived in Jeddah on board a French government plane, coming from Poland, and is expected to head to the Japanese city of Hiroshima to attend the G7 meeting, in his first visit to Asia since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
In recent days, Zelensky has toured European countries to request more supplies of weapons for a counter-attack in an effort to recapture territory captured by Russian forces.
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