NSA Ajit Doval in Jeddah for Ukraine peace talks

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval has arrived in Jeddah, to participate in a summit of national security advisers and other officials being hosted in Saudi Arabia to discuss the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

The meeting is being organised in the coastal city of Jeddah to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's plan for peace amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.

In Jeddah summit, the 30 invitees include China, Chile, Egypt, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zambia will participate.

The summit aims to gather leaders from across the globe to endorse the principles for a peace settlement, based on President Zelenskiy's comprehensive 10-point formula.

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in 2014. The invasion has killed tens of thousands on both sides. Russian forces have been accused of mass civilian casualties and of torturing captured Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukraine a geopolitical flash point

• Ukraine was a cornerstone of the Soviet Union, the archrival of the United States during the Cold War. Ukraine was so vital to the union that its decision to sever ties in 1991 proved to be a coup de grâce for the ailing superpower.

• Ukraine has sought to forge its own path as a sovereign state while looking to align more closely with Western institutions, including the EU and NATO.

• Ukraine became a battleground in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and began arming and abetting separatists in the Donbas region in the country’s southeast. Russia’s seizure of Crimea was the first time since World War II that a European state annexed the territory of another.