Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said he had arrived in Saudi Arabia to address an Arab League summit in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah. He has also requested support for his peace initiative amid the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
Zelenskyy is expected to travel on to Japan for a G7 meeting, on his first visits to the Middle East and Asia since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Arrived in Saudi Arabia. I will speak at the Arab League summit. I will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and hold other bilateral talks,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
Zelenskyy said his priorities for the visit would be “the presentation of our peace formula whose implementation should involve as many states as possible.”
“Another priority is the protection of Ukraine’s Muslim community” in the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, he wrote.
“Crimea was the first to suffer Russian occupation and most of those facing repression in occupied Crimea are Muslims,” he said.
The Arab League summit opens later on Friday.
