Russian President Vladimir Putin is to host a group of African leaders who travelled to Russia on a self-styled “peace mission” after their trip to Ukraine.
Seven African leaders – the presidents of Comoros, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia, as well as Egypt’s prime minister and top envoys from the Republic of Congo and Uganda – visited Ukraine on Friday to try to help end the near 16-month-old war.
The African leaders travelled to St Petersburg on Saturday to meet Mr Putin, who was attending a business forum in Russia’s second-largest city.
The mission to Ukraine, the first of its kind by African leaders, comes in the wake of other peace initiatives – such as one by China – and carried particular importance for Africa, which relies on food and fertiliser deliveries from Russia and Ukraine.
Every position retaken from the occupiers and every height occupied by our forces are new and new arguments for the world that Ukraine can, can win.
Thanks to every soldier! To everyone who fights with the enemy, rescues our soldiers after wounds, trains our soldiers, and… pic.twitter.com/QNtX2OG2YcAdvertisement— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 17, 2023
The war has impeded exports from one of the world’s most important breadbaskets.
“This conflict is affecting Africa negatively,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a news conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and four other African leaders after their closed-door talks on Friday.
Mr Ramaphosa and others acknowledged the intensity of the hostilities but insisted all wars must come to an end and emphasised their willingness to help expedite that.
“I do believe that Ukrainians feel that they must fight and not give up. The road to peace is very hard,” he said, adding that “there is a need to bring this conflict to an end sooner rather than later”.
The delegation, including Senegal’s President Macky Sall and Presidents Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia, represented a cross-section of African views on the war.
South Africa, Senegal and Uganda have avoided censuring Moscow over the conflict, while Egypt, Zambia and Comoros voted against Russia last year in a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Moscow’s invasion.
Many African nations have long had close ties with Moscow, dating back to the Cold War when the Soviet Union supported their anti-colonial struggles.
Speaking during Friday’s news conference, Comoros President Azali Assoumani floated the idea of a “road map” to peace – prompting questions from Mr Zelensky, who sought a clarification and insisted he did not want “any surprises” from their visit with Mr Putin.
Chances for peace talks look dim as Ukraine and Russia take sharply different stands. Ukraine demands that Russia withdraws its troops from all its occupied territories as a condition for peace talks.
The Kremlin, in turn, wants Ukraine to recognise Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as part of Russia and acknowledge other land gains it has made.
China presented its own peace proposal at the end of February. Ukraine and its allies largely dismissed the plan, as the warring sides look no closer to a ceasefire.
The African peace mission comes as Ukraine launches a counter-offensive to dislodge the Kremlin’s forces from occupied areas, using Western-supplied advanced weapons in attacks in several sections of more than the 600-mile front line.
