Ukraine praises Saudi Arabia’s support after $400 million aid pledge
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud arrives for joint press conference with head of the office of the president of Ukraine and foreign minister of Ukraine in Kyiv on Feb. 26, 2023.
Genya Savilov | Afp | Getty Images
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Saudi Arabia on Sunday following a high-level diplomatic visit that saw the Middle Eastern kingdom, an ally of Russia given their oil production ties, pledge a $400 million aid package to Ukraine.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the president of Ukraine, were present at a ceremony in which an agreement and memorandum of understanding worth $400 million of aid to Ukraine, which Saudi Arabia initially pledged last October, were signed.
The agreement includes a joint cooperation program for providing humanitarian assistance from the Kingdom to Ukraine worth $100 million, Saudi’s state press agency said.
“The signing of the agreement and the MoU reflects the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to supporting Ukraine and its people in facing the social and economic challenges that the country is going through and contributing to alleviating the effects resulting from it,” the agency added.
Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday that he had a good meeting with the kingdom’s foreign minister, the first high-level official visit by a representative of Saudi Arabia.
“Of course, we are working on a higher level of visits and relations. But now we have finally reached an interaction,” Zelenskyy said.
“This … brings concrete and sensitive results for Ukrainians, in particular with regard to the release of prisoners of war. I thank our Saudi partners for their cooperation and assistance,” he added.
— Holly Ellyatt
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