(AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia. Highly anticipated negotiations on Tuesday on resolving the three-year conflict will see US and Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since Zelensky’s disastrous White House visit last month.
Zelensky said he would on Monday meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto leader, after which his team “will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team”. At the talks in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said Washington wants “to get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well”. Zelensky has said Ukraine is “fully committed to constructive dialogue”, but wants its interests to be “taken into account in the right way”. “We hope for results, both in terms of bringing peace closer and continuing support,” he said in his evening address on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will fly to Jeddah on Monday, the US State Department said. Mike Waltz, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has also confirmed his participation.
Zelensky said his negotiators will include Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, and Pavlo Palisa, a military commander and Yermak’s deputy. Kyiv is in “constant contact with the US team,” Zelensky said. Washington has currently suspended military aid to Ukraine as well as intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery in a bid to force it to the table with Moscow, which launched its all-out invasion in February 2022 on orders from President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has renewed communication with Putin and criticized Zelensky, raising fears in Kyiv and among European allies that the US leader may try to force Ukraine to accept a settlement favoring Russia. On Friday, however, Trump said he was considering further sanctions on Russia for “pounding” Ukraine on the battlefield. Ukraine’s European allies last week held a summit with Zelensky and announced they would greatly increase defence spending. Britain and France have proposed a truce for Ukraine, at sea and in the air, and a halt to Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine’s power facilities. Ukrainian and British diplomats held talks in Kyiv at the weekend, Zelensky said.
The Saudi talks come after the public altercation between Zelensky and Trump in the White House led to the Ukrainian leaving without signing a minerals deal demanded by the US leader. Zelensky later called the incident “regrettable” and said he was ready to work with Trump’s “strong leadership”. He also expressed readiness to sign the deal on strategic mineral reserves. Witkoff said Trump received a letter from Zelensky, calling it “a very positive first step” and “an apology”. Asked if Ukraine would sign the deal in Saudi Arabia, Witkoff said: “I think Zelensky has offered to sign it, and we’ll see if he follows through.”
Witkoff visited Moscow in February to secure the release of a jailed US teacher, and later said he spent a long time talking to Putin and “developing a relationship” with him. Waltz was in the Oval Office during Zelensky’s combative meeting with Trump and JD Vance. He later told Fox News that Zelensky “is not ready to talk peace” but “time is not on his side”. In an interview with CNN, Waltz said that if Zelensky’s “personal motivations or political motivations are divergent from ending the fighting… then I think we have a real issue”.
Saudi Arabia has become a key host for US diplomacy with Russia and Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Rubio met in Riyadh last month, agreeing to resume dialogue and start talks on the Ukraine conflict. Zelensky has visited Saudi Arabia several times since Russia’s invasion in 2022 but postponed a trip last month, citing a lack of an invitation to the Russia-US talks. In 2022, five prisoners held in Russian-controlled Ukraine were flown to Riyadh to be exchanged after negotiations involving the crown prince. Putin said the crown prince also helped secure the release of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, jailed by Russia for “espionage” last year.
A historic ally of the US, the oil-rich state became an international pariah following the assassination of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey in 2018. But Witkoff has said Trump’s team has a “really good relationship with the Saudis”.
© 2024 AFP
