Zelenskyy’s Secret Oman Trip: Five Years Without Answers

On January 5, 2020, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy unexpectedly flew to Oman, catching both the public and political establishment off guard.

The President had welcomed the New Year at Huta, one of Ukraine’s state residences that Zelenskyy—while still a presidential candidate—had promised to transfer for children’s use. From there, on January 2, he flew from Ivano-Frankivsk to Kyiv and then departed for Oman, a state on the Arabian Peninsula.

The head of the Presidential Security Service, Maksym Donets, traveled to Oman in advance to prepare the visit.

At the same time, Russia’s Security Council Secretary, Nikolai Patrushev, arrived in Muscat, Oman, while Zelenskyy was there. The Russian official landed on the night of January 7–8 aboard the same charter aircraft—a Bombardier Global Express 6000 with tail number 9H-VJN—that, just a day later, transported the President of Ukraine from Muscat back to Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the President’s Office promised that they would explain Zelenskyy’s Christmas trip to Oman “in due course.”

Five years have passed. No explanation has been provided.

Zelenskyy was accompanied on the Oman trip by his aide, Andriy Yermak, who exactly one month later was appointed Head of the Office of the President.

Zelenskyy did not meet with the Sultan of Oman, who was gravely ill at the time and died the day after the Ukrainian president returned home.

In Oman, Zelenskyy officially met with the country’s foreign minister. The outcomes of that meeting remain unclear to this day.

Oman is widely used by Russia as a hub to circumvent Western sanctions and restrictions.

How Oman has been used by Zelenskyy remains a secret of the Office of the President.

Serhii Pohrebetskyy