Ukraine and Syria officially re-establish diplomatic relations after leaders meet at UN
Ukraine and Syria formally restored diplomatic relations, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sept. 25 after meeting his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa at the UN General Assembly.
“Today Ukraine and Syria signed a Joint Communique on the restoration of diplomatic relations. We welcome this important step and are ready to support the Syrian people on the path to stability,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
He added that he and al-Sharaa discussed opportunities for cooperation as well as shared security threats.
“We also agreed to build relations based on mutual respect and trust,” Zelensky said.
Kyiv had cut ties with Damascus on June 30, 2022, after the then-Bashar al-Assad regime recognized the Russian-occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as “independent.”
The renewal of relations follows Assad’s overthrow in Dec. 2024. Shortly after, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha visited Syria and held talks with the country’s new leadership.
Moscow originally deployed its troops to Syria in 2015, providing support to the Assad regime against multiple anti-government forces.
Russian forces operating in Syria had been accused by the U.N. and other organizations of committing war crimes in the country. Following the overthrow of Assad’s government, he and his family fled to Moscow where they have been living in exile ever since.
Al-Sharaa’s presence and address at the UN General Assembly marked the first time in six decades that a Syrian leader attended the summit.
Syria’s new UN ambassador Ibrahim Olabi said that the return was a “historical moment."
“The speech itself really focused on this idea of what a new Syria will look like and what the former Syria will look like. The Assad regime was so much an enemy of the Syrian people, as much as an enemy of international world," Olabi told Al Jazeera.
