The Diplomat
The head of the Ukrainian Presidency Office, Andriy Yermak, thanked the Spanish government for its “willingness” to support the peace plan presented by Kyiv to put an end to the war with Russia during the meeting he held in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) with the director of the Foreign Ministry of the Presidency of the Spanish government, Emma Aparici.
During the security meeting held this weekend in the Saudi city, which was attended by representatives from more than 30 countries, Yermak spoke with Aparici about all the issues addressed in the security forum. “Both sides,” he summarised in a statement, “discussed new forms of security support, as well as interaction with the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union”.
Yermak explained that he had conveyed his thanks to Spain for its recent endorsement of the so-called ‘G7 Joint Statement on Security Assurances for Ukraine’, a document drawn up by the world’s seven leading economies and announced last month that outlines the country’s security future.
Zelenski’s delegate welcomed ‘Madrid’s readiness to join in the implementation’ of Ukraine’s peace plan, the so-called ‘Formula for Peace’. This is a ten-point programme that, for example, calls for the withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukraine, including territories that Moscow considers an indissoluble part of the Russian Federation, such as the Crimean peninsula.
Russia has repeatedly asserted that it will not come to the table to discuss Zelensky’s peace plan and insists that any peace negotiations on Ukraine must take into account ‘new territorial realities’. At the same time, Moscow demands security guarantees on NATO deployment in Eastern Europe.
Regarding the Jeddah meeting, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a recent interview with Russian broadcaster RBC that any conclusions reached at a political meeting without Russia’s presence “are meaningless and meaningless”, although she expressed Russia’s willingness to discuss the results of the meeting.
