Zelenskyy says arrived in Saudi Arabia for Arab League summit

The summit comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is flexing its diplomatic muscle across the Middle East and beyond

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said he had arrived in Saudi Arabia to address an Arab League summit in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah.

Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Japan for a G7 meeting, on his first visits to the Middle East and Asia since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"Arrived in Saudi Arabia. I will speak at the Arab League summit. I will meet with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman al-Saud and hold other bilateral talks," Zelenskyy said on social media.

Zelenskyy said his priorities for the visit would be "the presentation of our peace formula whose implementation should involve as many states as possible".

Also Read | Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend G7 summit in Hiroshima in person

"Another priority is the protection of Ukraine's Muslim community" in the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, he wrote.

"Crimea was the first to suffer Russian occupation and most of those facing repression in occupied Crimea are Muslims," he said.

The Arab League summit opens later on Friday.

The summit comes at a time when Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, is flexing its diplomatic muscle across the Middle East and beyond.

Zelenskyy has in recent days been on a tour of European states to ask for more arms supplies for a counter-offensive aimed at taking back territory captured by Russian troops.