Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he arrived in Saudi Arabia this Friday to participate in the Arab League Summit, before traveling to Japan for the G7 meeting.
“I have arrived in Saudi Arabia. I will address the top of the Arab League. I will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and have other bilateral talks”Zelensky wrote on the Telegram social network.
The 32nd Arab League summit will take place this Friday in the coastal city of Jeddah.
This is Zelensky’s first visit to the region since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, has recently strengthened relations with China and is coordinating oil policy with Russia amid Moscow’s war against Ukraine, the French agency AFP said.
In the message he posted to Telegram, Zelensky said one of Kiev’s priorities “is the protection of the Ukrainian Muslim community.”
“Mustafa Dzhemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, is with us. Crimea was the first to suffer under the Russian occupation, and most of those oppressed in occupied Crimea are Muslims.she wrote.
Zelensky said he would submit Ukraine’s peace plan to the Arab League, whose approval “should include as many states as possible”.
Zelensky’s peace plan envisages the withdrawal of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, occupied since 2014, and the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia, annexed by Moscow in September 2022.
Russia rejects these demands, claiming that Kiev must accept the new reality.
Zelensky also said he intends to ensure “energy security in the coming winter” in Jeddah.
He also said his priorities were the return of “all political prisoners of Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories” by Russian troops, as well as all people “illegally deported”.
The Arab League consists of 22 countries: Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia.
After Saudi Arabia, Zelensky should attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where the leaders of major Western economies have already announced new sanctions against the Russian economy.
The Ukrainian leader has just toured several European countries to obtain more weapons and military equipment to support a major counter-offensive to reclaim Russian-held territory.
Source: DN
