Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Saudi Arabia to visit the kingdom’s crown prince and prime minister ahead of meetings with United States diplomats focused on a bilateral minerals deal and ending Ukraine’s war with Russia.
Saudi state television reported Zelenskyy’s arrival in Jeddah, a port city on the Red Sea where the Ukraine-US summit will be held on Tuesday. He will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, before Ukrainian officials – including Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov – sit down with the Americans on Tuesday.
“Ukraine has been seeking peace since the very first second of the war, and we have always said that the only reason that the war is continuing is because of Russia”, Zelenskyy wrote on social media ahead of his trip.
US Secretary of State Mark Rubio arrived in Jeddah shortly after Zelenskyy. The top US diplomat is leading a delegation that also includes Mike Waltz, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.
Rubio has said it is important to clearly establish Ukraine’s intentions to reach a point where peace with Russia is possible.
He spoke to reporters en route to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah for Tuesday’s meeting with Ukrainian officials. Rubio stressed that it was crucial to leave the meeting with a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared “to do difficult things” – just like the Russians.
Tensions have been high between Ukraine and the US since a February 28 Oval Office meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump descended into an argument, and led to the US suspending all military aid to Ukraine.
Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said that in Ukraine, there is talk that Zelenskyy was planning to offer a partial ceasefire involving an end to hostilities in the sky and at sea.
“The president is hoping this kind of message will in some way ease this pressure that the US has been putting on Ukraine. We’re talking about the suspension of military aid, the suspension of full access to intelligence sharing and satellite imagery”, Stratford said.
“Some analysts, quite interestingly, are saying that if Zelenskyy plays it right, he could put the ball back in Russia’s court – really testing the Russians, who have so far been averse to any partial ceasefire”, he added.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Ukraine should decide whether it wants peace.
Peskov told reporters it’s “not important what we expect” from the upcoming US-Ukrainian talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
“What is important here is what the United States expects. And at various levels, you and I have repeatedly heard statements that the United States is waiting for a demonstration of the Ukrainians ‘ desire for peace”, said Peskov.
“In fact, this is probably what everyone is waiting for. Whether the members of Zelenskyy’s regime really want peace or not – this is very important and needs to be decided”.
Russia advancing in Kursk
Meanwhile, on the front line, Russian forces have stepped up pressure on Ukrainian forces holding parts of Russia’s Kursk region while also trying to gain a foothold in Ukraine’s Sumy region.
Ukrainian soldiers launched their audacious offensive into Russia’s Kursk in August, catching even their Western allies off guard and dealing an embarrassing blow to the Kremlin.
But Ukraine has been losing ground and conceded last month that it had lost two-thirds of the territory it once controlled inside the region.
On Monday, a Russian war blog, Two Majors, said Russian forces have cleared the settlement of Ivashkovsky and Russian units have been advancing in Kursk from at least seven directions.
Yuri Podolyaka, a Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said he was having trouble keeping up with events because the Russian advance was so swift.
He said Ukrainian units were trapped in several pockets in Kursk.
“Over the past four days, Russian troops have cleared as much territory in the Kursk region as they sometimes could not even clear in a couple of months”, said another Russian close to the Defence Ministry who writes the blog Rybar.
“The front has been pierced”, said Rybar’s creator, adding that Russian troops are gathering inside the Ukrainian border to cut off the main roads leading out of Kursk to Ukraine’s Sumy region.
However, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii said that Kyiv is reinforcing its troops.
“I made a decision to strengthen our grouping with the necessary forces and means, including electronic warfare and unmanned components”, Syrskii wrote in a post on social media.
He addressed concerns circulating in Ukrainian media that the country’s forces may be surrounded, saying: “Currently, there is no threat of encirclement of our units in the Kursk region”.
He conceded however that Ukrainian forces were buckling under mounting Russian pressure and were having to fall back to positions that are easier to hold.
“The units are taking timely measures to manoeuvre to favourable defence lines”, Syrskii said.
Separately, Ukraine’s army said its forces had launched drone strikes hitting several Russian targets, including oil refineries “supplying the invaders”.
“The defence forces continue to take all measures to undermine the military-economic potential of the Russian occupiers and force the Russian Federation to stop its armed aggression against Ukraine”, the military said.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, however, said its air defence systems had destroyed two Ukrainian drones.
The ministry wrote on Telegram on Monday that one was downed over Russia’s Belgorod region and the other over the Kursk region, both of which sit on the border with Ukraine.
