Zelenskyy Arrives In Singapore To Make Ukraine's Case At Top Defense Summit

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday. He intends to meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and discuss support for his embattled country in an address to delegates. Zelenskyy will deliver an in-person speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, considered Asia's premier defense summit.

Speculation about Zelenskyy's trip to Singapore had been circulating for weeks, with expectations that he would advocate for Ukraine's interests and persuade countries in the Global South to distance themselves from Russia. This was particularly significant in a region where the Israel-Hamas conflict had drawn attention away from the situation in Europe. Reuters was the first to confirm Zelenskyy's plans to attend the summit.

On Wednesday, Zelenskyy remarked that Russia is attempting to sabotage the summit, set for June 15-16. He aims for the summit to garner backing for the withdrawal of Russian troops and the reinstatement of Ukraine's 1991 borders.

Top officials such as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun have traveled to Singapore for this year's summit.

Kyiv has been eager to arrange meetings with China's senior officials, given Beijing's backing of Moscow's war efforts following a declaration of "no-limits" friendship with Russia. Zelenskyy has specifically requested Beijing's high-level representation at the Ukraine peace summit scheduled for June 15-16 in Switzerland. However, on Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry announced that Beijing would not participate in the conference because Russia had not received an invitation.

According to Financial Times, several Ukrainian officials said that Kyiv's bitterness over lack of top-level US support for its peace summit initiative was just one of many points of friction with Washington and other western partners that have erupted at a particularly difficult time for Ukraine's leadership.

A US official said Ukraine's request to use US weapons to strike inside Russia was relatively recent, coming three weeks ago when Russian forces opened a new front in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. The official said the request is being evaluated by the Biden administration, suggesting a shift was possible soon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned NATO members against allowing Ukraine to fire their weapons into Russia and on Tuesday once again raised the risk of nuclear war.

US officials say that Ukraine scheduled the summit in Switzerland for June 15 and 16 despite being told that Biden would probably be unable to attend. This year, the United States has greenlit $61 billion worth of weapons for Ukraine. Some of these weapons, including Patriot missiles and ATACMS precision ballistic missiles, have already been delivered to the country.