Ukraine's Zelenskyy arrives in Saudi Arabia to meet prince ahead of summit with US

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived Monday in Saudi Arabia for a visit with its powerful crown prince ahead of his team's meeting with America's top diplomat.

While Zelenskyy himself won't be there, his team will try to repair the damage done when his Feb. 28 visit to Washington descended into an Oval Office argument with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

At stake is the military aid and intelligence previously offered by the United States that had helped Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Saudi state television reported Zelenskyy's arrival in Jeddah, a port city on the Red Sea where the Ukraine-U.S. summit will take place Tuesday.

Zelenskyy was due to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sometime after sunset, following the end of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was en route to Jeddah as well. However, it didn't appear that Rubio and Zelenskyy would meet in person there, though the secretary of state also was due to meet Prince Mohammed.

Zelenskyy has said a team including his chief of staff Andriy Yermak, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will take part in the talks Tuesday. Rubio will lead the American team.

If Ukraine and the U.S. reach an understanding acceptable to Trump, that could accelerate his administration’s push to peace talks. However, the rest of Europe remains skeptical as it has been sidelined.

The European Union last week agreed to boost the continent’s defenses and to free up hundreds of billions of euros for security in response to the Trump administration's shift in stance on Ukraine.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.