The Ukrainian president is trying to secure a favorable deal to end his country’s war with Russia. Saudi Arabia has emerged as a host to talks that the Trump administration is pursuing with Moscow and Kyiv.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, working to repair his strained relationship with the United States and secure a favorable deal to end his country’s war with Russia, was scheduled to meet on Monday with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia.
The meeting between Mr. Zelensky and Prince Mohammed, the de facto Saudi leader, who has sought to take a central role on the world’s diplomatic stage, comes ahead of talks planned for Tuesday between Ukrainian and U.S. officials in the oil-rich Gulf state.
The crown prince, once shunned internationally because of accusations of human rights abuses that he has denied, has positioned his country as a middleman in efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Last year, Saudi Arabia played a pivotal role in a complex U.S.-Russia prisoner swap, and President Trump has suggested it could be the site of a possible meeting between him and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Last month, Mr. Zelensky postponed a trip to Saudi Arabia after it hosted an extraordinary meeting of the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, in which the two sides sought to reset their relationship and discussed the war in Ukraine, without Mr. Zelensky.
But on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said on social media that he would visit Saudi Arabia, declaring that he was “determined to do everything to end this war with a just and lasting peace.”
“Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war,” he wrote of the full-scale conflict, which began with Russia’s invasion three years ago. “Realistic proposals are on the table. The key is to move quickly and effectively.”