Zelensky announced his visit to Saudi Arabia for the Arab League summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday that he was in Saudi Arabia for an Arab League summit in the coastal city of Jeddah ahead of an expected trip to Japan for the G7 meeting.

“I will speak at the Arab League summit. I will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and engage in other bilateral talks,” Zelensky said on his Telegram account.

It will be his first visit to the region since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022.

To Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, Mr. Zelensky’s visit is not trivial, as he is amid a Moscow-led war against Ukraine, which has recently strengthened its ties with China and coordinated oil policy with Russia.

Among his “priorities” facing the leaders of the Pan-Arab Organization, the Ukrainian president specifically mentioned in the telegram “the presentation of our formula for peace, the implementation of which should involve as many states as possible.”

“Another priority is the protection of the Muslim community in Ukraine” in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, he said, also referring to the Crimean Tatars. “Crimea was the first victim of the Russian occupation, and most of the victims of persecution in occupied Crimea were Muslims,” ​​he wrote.

After his trip to Saudi Arabia, Volodymyr Zelensky is expected in person at the G7 summit in Hiroshima (Japan), where leaders of major Western economies have already announced new sanctions to further strangle the Russian economy.

Ukraine’s president has wrapped up a tour of several European countries to demand more weapons and military equipment to support a major counteroffensive aimed at recapturing territories occupied by Russia.