Zelenskyy arrives in Saudi Arabia to seek peace and POW swap with Russia

On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, visited Saudi Arabia to meet with the kingdom’s crown prince to ask for a plan to make peace and to get back Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia.

Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to help stop the fighting between Ukraine and Russia. But Saudi Arabia still supports Russia when it comes to energy decisions. Yesterday, the prince had a meeting with Vyacheslav Volodin, who is the chairman of Russia’s Duma, the lower house of its parliament, and many other Russian officials.

Zelenskyy went to visit as Kyiv’s army was starting to lose ground in eastern Ukraine. Military experts say that Russia is leading because it has more soldiers and weapons than Ukraine. Ukraine is waiting to hear if they will get more support from their Western allies.

“The Ukrainian military moved its soldiers away from two more villages near Avdiivka in Donetsk after heavy fighting overnight,” a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army said on Tuesday.

Ukrainian soldiers have moved away from Sieverne and Stepove, according to Dmytro Lykhovyi on TV. He said that before the big attack, the two villages had about 100 people living there.

Ukraine still depends on Saudi Arabia’s help to push for a “Peace Formula” to end the invasion. Zelenskyy said this in a message on X, which used to be called Twitter.

Zelenskyy has a 10-point plan for peace that includes getting all Russian troops out of Ukraine and making sure those who committed war crimes are held responsible. This is happening while the two sides are fighting from mostly the same positions along a 1,500-kilometre (930-mile) front line. Moscow quickly rejects those ideas.

“The next topic is about bringing back prisoners of war and people who were sent out of the country,” Zelenskyy wrote. The leaders of the kingdom have already helped to free our people. I am sure this meeting will have good outcomes. He also said we will talk about working together on our economy.

In this picture from the Saudi Royal Palace, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Royal Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, Feb. 11thThe date is 27, 2024. Bandar Aljaloud took the photo at the Saudi Royal Palace. It was released by the AP.

Zelenskky arrived at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and was greeted by government officials, as reported by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Later video showed Zelenskyy and other important people in his government meeting with a happy Prince Mohammed. Also present was Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz.

A video showed the prince and Zelenskyy talking in English without translators in a big hall at a palace while other officials were sitting nearby.

In recent years, Crown Prince Mohammed has made peace with Iran, tried to make peace with Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and has offered to help solve other worldwide problems. After getting a lot of criticism from many countries for their war in Yemen and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, the Saudi-led coalition is now facing trouble. Intelligence agencies think that the attack was done because he told someone to do it.

Saudi Arabia and Ukraine did not immediately give a lot of information about what the leaders talked about. On Monday, the prince talked about things that both the kingdom and the Russian Duma leader are interested in.

“Volodin passed on the hello and best wishes from Russian President Vladimir Putin,” reported Russia’s Tass news agency.

In May, Zelenskyy went to Saudi Arabia to meet with Arab leaders and also met with Crown Prince Mohammed. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, who are all next to each other on the Arabian Peninsula, have been trading prisoners since the war started in 2022.