Zelenskyy, 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 at the Arab League summit. I will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and hold other bilateral meetings,” according to AFP.
He said his priorities during the visit would be “to present our formula for peace, the implementation of which must include as many countries as possible”.
“Another priority is to protect Ukrainian Muslims” 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 suffering oppression in occupied Crimea are Muslims,” he added, according to the French agency.
Zelenskyy said in a tweet on Twitter that his goal was to “strengthen Ukraine’s bilateral relations and relations with the Arab world”, noting that among other topics he mentioned were the annexation of Crimea. by Russia, a “peace formula” and cooperation in the field of energy. , as reported by the Associated Press.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plays an important role and we are ready to take our cooperation to a new level,” he was quoted by Reuters on Twitter immediately after his arrival.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously served as a mediator in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
And last year he scored a diplomatic victory by helping secure the release of 10 foreigners held by Russia in Ukraine. This decision seems to have been possible thanks to his close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy had arrived in Jeddah on a French government plane from Poland, after which he is expected to travel to the Japanese city of Hiroshima to attend the G7 meeting, in his first visit to Asia since the start of the war. war in Ukraine.
In recent days, Zelenskyy has been scouring European countries asking for more arms supplies for a counterattack in a bid to retake territory captured by Russian forces.
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