Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met the leader of the United Arab Emirates on Monday while the momentum develops for potential peace talks ending the Moscow war against the country.
President Donald Trump last week suggested that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates, which house Abu Dhabi and Dubai, have long been launched as a possible site for peace talks, given the large population of Russian and Ukrainian expatriates who have flooded the country since the start of the war and in reason for The work of the Emirates on the exchanges of prisoners in the past.
In an exchange with journalists on Sunday, Trump said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be involved “in negotiations. Trump did not offer any other explanation. Trump said on Sunday that he believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was impatient from an agreement, while noting that Russia had historically impressed on the battlefield.
Zelenskyy arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday evening after Attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Images published by her office showed her, she and his wife, Olena Zelenska, welcomed by an Emirati official and an honor guard at the airport late on Sunday evening.
Zelenska traveled to the water Since the large -scale invasion of Russia in 2022, but this trip has been the first of Zelenskyy to water since the start of the war.
“Our absolute priority is to bring back even more of our employees to the House of Captivity,” said Zelenskyy’s office in Online Messages. “We will also focus on investments and economic partnership, as well as a large -scale humanitarian program.”
The WAM news agency of the United Arab Emirates did not immediately report on the arrival of Zelenskyy, which was unusual.
Later Monday, Zelenskyy’s office published a video of him meeting Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the water chief and sovereign of Abu Dhabi.
Zelenskyy said that the meeting included managers of the signing of an agreement that “liberalizes the maximum access to the water market for almost all Ukrainian goods”.
The Ukrainian Minister of the Economy Yulia Svyryrydenko in an article on Facebook entitled The Deal “Really a historic event” because it was the first in the country with an Arab State in the Gulf. Officials also agreed to create a Ukraine-Uae Investment Council.
“I am convinced that this agreement will give a strong boost to our economies, will strengthen cooperation in the key sectors and set the foundations for a stable long -term commitment between our countries,” wrote the minister.
Zelenskyy’s visit to Abu Dhabi came as she hosts His exhibition and conference of international defense Biennale Weapons show this week, where Ukraine and Russia have posted weapons – even if Moscow faces Western sanctions during the war.
While Ukraine did not sell any of the weapons, its presence at the fair was crucial, said Ivan Sybyriakov, principal director of the SPETS Techno export systems.
“It is very important to show that Ukraine is not the victim of the war,” he said. “Ukraine is the defender of Europe.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, visited the stands of Ukraine on Monday afternoon, even though the Russian was trying to sell helicopters and other weapons at the fair.
“Our capacity now, we could produce 4 million drones a year despite the war,” said Sybiha to journalists. “We could test drones or our products immediately on the battlefield. This is why they are really of high quality. So I am really proud, as minister of a country of war, to visit the exhibition. »»
Russian money continues to flood on the heated real estate market in Dubai. Daily flights between the Emirates and Moscow provide a rescue buoy for both those who flee conscription and the Russian elite. The US Treasury under former President Joe Biden also expressed his concerns about the amount of Russian treasury in the country of the Arabian Peninsula.
Zelenskyy’s visit comes when Denis Manturov, the first Russian Deputy Prime Minister, went earlier on Sunday with the leader of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president and sovereign of the country of Abu Dhabi. A reading of Wam described talks as focusing on “the growth of the links of the Russian and the means of advancing shared interests, benefiting both to nations and their peoples”.
In the meantime, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads a delegation to Saudi Arabia This week for direct interviews with Russia during the war. He will meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and other officials from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Ukraine will not be present at talks.
The awareness call and the direct call of Trump with Putin have turned upside years of American politics by virtue of Biden who isolated Moscow on his February 24, 2022, large -scale invasion from Ukraine.
Sybiha refused to answer a question of a journalist about what he would say to his American counterpart before the meeting.
___
The writer Associated Press Hanna Arhirova in kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
