Saudi-hosted summit on Ukraine concludes in favor of Kiev

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
6 Aug 2023 15:34
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Russia has not been invited to take part in the two-day talks which hosted representatives of over 30 countries.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Jeddah on May 19, 2023. (AFP)

Italian newspaper il Messaggero reported on Sunday, citing sources in the European Union, that participants who partook in the talks on Ukraine in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have come to an agreement that they respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The Gulf country is currently holding peace talks on Ukraine in its second-largest city, Jeddah, where participants from 30 countries are taking part.

Russia has not been invited to take part in the two-day talks which are scheduled to end on August 6.

After the talks ended, participants agreed that the UN's Charter should constitute the basis for any peace agreement in the context of the Ukraine conflict.

They also agreed to create working groups on the ten points of the peace formula set forth by Kiev.

According to sources cited by the report, the talks have not yet set a specific timing for the meeting of heads of state. However, that could happen by the end of 2023.

Kiev said it expects the summit to endorse its peace proposal which includes a return to the pre-2014 borders.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated earlier this week that some countries would use the platform to build an anti-Russian coalition.

On a similar note, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow will attentively follow the talks to assess the goals participants were pursuing.

Ukrainian forces launched in June a counteroffensive with the aim of recapturing the liberated territories of Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, and Zaporozhia.

The Russian Defense Ministry has on several occasions reported that Ukrainian forces have suffered heavy losses in manpower and armored equipment.

On July 26, during talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed, noting that 26,000 Ukrainian troops had been neutralized.

"There is no [Ukrainian] counteroffensive," Lukashenko said.

"There is one, but it failed," Putin replied.