Zelensky joins Saudi peace talks in bad faith fearing Western pressure
3 Min Read
Ukraine's President informs his ambassadors that against his desires, Western pressure on Kiev is likely to grow in the next few months to reach a peace deal with Moscow.
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United States President Joe Biden (L) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a NATO summit for leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 12, 2023 (AFP)
Kiev is concerned that Western pressure on Ukraine to negotiate an agreement with Moscow is likely to grow in the coming months, leaving the country's participation in the Saudi peace talks of questionable nature.
According to a report by The New York Times, Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky told his ambassadors earlier this week that, as military actions escalate at the fronts, the country will probably be subjected to rising Western pressure to negotiate with Russia an end to the war.
Read more: Decisions on Ukraine during Jeddah summit 'meaningless' without Russia
Zelensky described Wednesday's meeting with Ukraine's envoys as an “emergency strategy session” as he prepared to travel to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to partake in the peace summit joining 30 nations, excluding Russia.
Every available tool must be used, the President ordered his ambassadors, both “official and unofficial, institutional and media, cultural diplomacy and the power of ordinary human sincerity" to pursuade both Kiev's allies and neutral countries that only a "Russian defeat" would be the viable choice for lasting peace, NYT added.
But a large number of countries attending the summit in Saudi Arabia have no intentions on taking sides in the conflict, which they consider as a “contest between superpowers” and have resisted Washington's pressure since the start of the war to take an anti-Russia stance.
“This is not only a conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” said Celso Amorim, an advisor to Brazilian President Lula da Silva, in a video address at the summit.
Read more: Polls show more US voters less supportive of Ukraine NATO bid
“This is also a chapter in the longstanding rivalry between Russia and the West,” Amorim stressed.
Russian officials have argued that Kiev’s Western backers are only prolonging the bloodshed in Ukraine by continuing to send billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the former Soviet Republic.
Over 43,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since Kiev began a counteroffensive in the Donbass region in early June, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
A peace deal was within inches of being inked by Russia and Ukraine in March 2022 during a Turkey-hosted talks. But the negotiations eventually collapsed after Kiev pulled out following US pressures.
“After we pulled troops back from Kiev, as we promised,” Ukrainian leaders “threw it all away, into the garbage dump of history,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with African leaders in July.
