What did Ukrainian President Zelensky achieve by making several visits one after the other?

Ukraine is taking an aggressive stance, at least diplomatically correct. President Volodymyr Zelensky has spent the past several weeks traveling country after country and attending conferences in an effort to keep Ukraine at the top of the international agenda. Meanwhile, they are also getting military, economic and political support for the war that started in February last year. Judging by the results, Zelensky’s diplomacy has been relatively successful. This success has offset some of the recent setbacks suffered by Ukrainian forces around the beleaguered city of Bakhmut.

Zelensky traveled to Rome, Berlin, Paris, and London between May 13 and 15 to garner significant European military support for Ukraine, boosting the country’s offensive and defensive military capabilities. Zelensky visited Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday 19 May and left for Hiroshima for the FIRG7 summit. In Saudi Arabia, he was given a platform to address all 22 member states of the Arab League and met with Saudi ‘Crown Prince’ Mohammed bin Salman.

Through this, Zelensky got an opportunity to present his 10-point peace plan and condemn Russia’s invasion, on the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote a letter to the Arab League, in which the ongoing war in Libya, Sudan and Yemen Support was offered. However, during this period, Zelensky did not show any specific commitment towards the peace plan, nor did any clear stand against Russia. But in the Jeddah Declaration adopted at the summit, the Arab leaders explicitly called for “respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states”. From Jeddah, Zelensky left for Hiroshima. Arriving there, he addressed the gathering in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Through this address, he got an opportunity to convey his point to India and Brazil, two major countries of the ‘Global South’, who have not yet condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This positive momentum was sustained in separate meetings between Ukrainian, US and UK defense officials on 23 and 24 May. As expected, the leaders of the G7 countries discussed among themselves and issued a separate statement on Ukraine, in which Russia was strongly condemned as before and pledged to support Ukraine. The meetings also agreed to continue support for Ukraine.

This was followed by the 12th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on 25 May. The meeting is expected to focus on expediting the supply of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. In such a situation, the question arises whether this is the diplomatic silence before the military storm? Clearly, Ukraine is gearing up for its long-anticipated offensive, at least rhetorically. Zelensky’s diplomatic offensive seems to have helped him garner military support and he now plans to take advantage of this support to launch a forceful military counterattack on Russia. There is no doubt that Ukraine is getting the support of the West, but the slight change in the attitude of the Global South is no less important.

Attending the Arab League summit in person and speaking directly to Prime Minister Modi is a significant diplomatic victory for Zelensky. But this is not going to change the ground situation along the 1,000 km long border with Russia. Russia still occupies one-sixth of Ukraine. Ukraine retaliated against Russia in late summer last year, which was quite successful, but more than six months later, the situation has not changed much. In such a situation, Ukraine has several months to prepare for a vigorous attack in late summer. In the meantime, it can increase military supplies, train troops, and garner broad international support for its peace plan.

Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.

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