Saudi Arabia to host Ukrainian peace talks in August, India invited

Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organised peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, an official said.
 

The kingdom and Kyiv did not immediately acknowledge the planned talks.
 

The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as no authorisation had been given to publicly discuss the summit.
 

Those taking part in the summit will include Ukraine, as well as Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the official said. A high-level official from US President Joe Biden’s administration also is expected to attend, the official said. Planning for the event is being overseen by Kyiv and Russia is expected not to attend, the official said.
 

 

Details regarding the summit, however, remain in flux and the official did not offer dates for the talks. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the summit, said the talks would take place August 5 and 6 with some 30 countries attending, citing “diplomats involved in the discussion.” Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press, nor did Ukraine’s Embassy in Riyadh. News of the summit comes after US national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited the kingdom on Thursday.
 

The official who spoke to the AP said the summit would be the next step after talks that took place in Copenhagen 

in June.

African leaders leave Russian summit without grain deal

African leaders are leaving two days of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin with little to show for their requests to resume a deal that kept grain flowing from Ukraine and to find a path to end the war there.
 

Putin in a press conference late on Saturday following the Russia-Africa summit said Russia’s termination of the grain deal earlier this month caused a rise in grain prices that benefits Russian companies. He added that Moscow would share some of those revenues with the “poorest nations.” That commitment, with no details, follows Putin's promise to start shipping 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain for free to each of six African nations in the next three to four months — an amount dwarfed by the 725,000 tons shipped by the UN World Food Program to several hungry countries, African and otherwise, under the grain deal. Russia plans to send the free grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and Central African Republic.

Fewer than 20 of Africa’s 54 heads of state or government attended the Russia summit, while 43 attended the previous gathering in 2019, reflecting concerns over Russia's invasion of Ukraine even as Moscow seeks more allies on the African continent of 1.3 billion people. Putin praised Africa as a rising centre of power in the world, while the Kremlin blamed “outrageous” Western pressure for discouraging some African countries from showing up.
 

The presidents of Egypt and South Africa were among the most outspoken on the need to resume the grain deal.