Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Saudi Arabia forward of his group having talks with America’s high diplomat.
Mr Zelenskyy won’t be on the assembly with US secretary of state Marco Rubio, however Mr Zelenskyy’s group will attempt to enhance relations following his disastrous 28 February go to to Washington, which descended into an Oval Workplace argument with President Donald Trump and vice chairman JD Vance.
Saudi state tv reported that Mr Zelenskyy’s had arrived in Jeddah, the place the Ukraine-US summit will happen on Tuesday.
Picture:
Mr Zelenskyy with Prince Saud bin Mishaal, and Saudi commerce minister Majid bin Abdullah al Qasabi. Pic: AP
Mr Zelenskyy is because of meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after sundown this night, following the top of the each day quick through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Mr Rubio can also be en path to Jeddah as nicely. He’s not resulting from meet Mr Zelenskyy however the secretary of state will meet Prince Mohammed.
The Ukrainian group will attempt to persuade the US to revive navy help and intelligence that had helped Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Chatting with reporters aboard his airplane, Mr Rubio mentioned if Ukraine and the US attain an understanding acceptable to Mr Trump, that might speed up his administration’s push to peace talks.
“What we want to know is, are they interested [in] entering some sort of peace conversation and general outlines of the kinds of things they could consider, recognising that it has been a costly and bloody war for the Ukrainians,” Mr Rubio mentioned.
“They have suffered greatly and their people have suffered greatly. And it’s hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions, but that’s the only way this is going to end and prevent more suffering.”
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‘We wish Ukraine to be critical’ about peace
He added: “I’m not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do. I think we want to listen to see how far they’re willing to go and then compare that to what the Russians want and see how far apart we truly are.”
In the meantime, Sir Keir Starmer spoke to Mr Trump on Monday forward of the US-Ukraine assembly.
A Downing Road readout of the decision mentioned that Sir Keir instructed the president that “UK officials had been speaking to Ukraine officials over the weekend and they remain committed to a lasting peace”.
“The prime minister said he hoped there would be a positive outcome to the talks that would enable US aid and intelligence sharing to be restarted,” the assertion mentioned.
“The two leaders also spoke about the economic deal they had discussed at the White House and the prime minister welcomed the detailed conversations that had already happened to move this forward. Both leaders agreed to stay in touch.”
In the meantime, the European Union agreed final week to spice up the continent’s defences and release tons of of billions of euros for safety in response to the Trump administration’s shift in coverage in the direction of Ukraine.
A US intelligence official mentioned a pause on sharing US intelligence that can be utilized for offensive functions by Ukrainian forces stays in impact.
The official steered that progress might be made in the direction of reinstating intelligence sharing with Ukraine through the Saudi talks.
