2023-06-16 17:53:02
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday called on Ukraine and Russia to “de-escalate” during a visit to Kiev with a delegation of African leaders who came to try to mediate between this country and Moscow.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin for his part assured that the counter-offensive launched by the Ukrainians on the front had “no chance” of succeeding.
“There must be a de-escalation on both sides,” Ramaphosa said in a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the followingnoon.
But at the end of the meeting, the latter once more ruled out “any negotiation” with Moscow.
“Today I clearly said during our meeting (with the African delegation) that allowing any negotiations with Russia now, when the occupier is on our land, means freezing the war, freezing the pain and the suffering”, has added Mr. Zelensky.
The African delegation had arrived in kyiv in the morning. Shortly following, the capital region was targeted by a Russian missile attack which triggered anti-aircraft sirens followed by explosions, and injured at least seven people according to Ukrainian police.
“Today while we were here we heard regarding missile strikes and these types of hostilities are not good for promoting peace,” the South African president also said at the press conference.
After kyiv, the African mediation must head for Russia, where it must meet Vladimir Putin on Saturday in Saint Petersburg (north-west).
The African delegation includes four presidents – Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Macky Sall (Senegal) and Hakainde Hichilema (Zambia), as well as Azali Assoumani (Comoros), who heads the African Union – and representatives from Congo, Uganda and Egypt .
She had started her stop in Kiev with a visit to Boutcha, the South African presidency said on Twitter by posting several videos of their trip to this suburb of Kiev where the Russian army is accused of having massacred civilians. The Russian missile attack on the kyiv region took place soon following.
“Finding a Path of Peace”
NATO welcomed this mediation during the day, while warning that only a “just” solution considering Russia as the aggressor would work.
The Ukrainian Air Force said in the morning that it had shot down 12 Russian missiles, including six hypersonic Kinjals, over the capital region.
If the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, did not report any damage in the capital, the fragments of missiles made seven wounded including two children in the region of the capital, according to the local police.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy immediately qualified these Russian strikes as a “message to Africa”. “Russia wants more war, not peace,” said Dmytro Kouleba on Twitter, referring to “the largest missile attack once morest kyiv in weeks”.
“What happened today” shows African leaders “how sincere Putin is regarding ending the conflict” and the consideration he gives to “all international efforts to stop this conflict”, has commented in the same vein in Brussels Peter Stano, spokesman for the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
At the same time, Mr. Putin announced on Friday that he had transferred the first nuclear weapons to Belarus, concretizing the deployment announced in March by Moscow.
South African presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told him that the mission was going “rather well and as planned” in a video posted on Twitter, adding that the delegation intended by starting talks with Mr. Zelensky “to try to find a way of peace to this conflict”.
Mr. Putin was already in Saint Petersburg on Friday for an economic forum where he lambasted Ukraine at length, repeating his desire to “denazify” his neighbor, who has been on the offensive in the south for a week and a half.
“The Ukrainian armed forces have no chance there, nor in other areas,” Mr. Putin said, calling Mr. Zelensky a “shame for the Jewish people”.
slim chance
The African peace mediation, which Pretoria announced the launch last month, comes in full intensification of fighting on the front and Russian bombardments on Ukrainian cities.
But it is weakened by the last-minute defection of some of its members, and its chances of success are slim according to several experts.
In Warsaw, security members of the South African president who were to accompany him to Ukraine were detained upon their arrival at the airport, causing a diplomatic incident and accusations of “racism” once morest the Polish authorities.
The African mission is the latest in a series of so far unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
Africa is hard hit by rising food prices and the effects of war on world trade.
Criticized for its closeness to Moscow, South Africa has refused to condemn Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, claiming to hold a neutral position and want to favor dialogue.
The Kremlin is trying to lure African leaders into its camp by positioning Russia as a bulwark once morest Western imperialism and accusing the West of blocking exports of vital Russian grains and fertilizers to Africa with its sanctions .
Ukraine is also trying to influence African leaders, who have denounced the Russian invasion less unanimously than the major Western powers.
“They cannot play the role of mediators. They have little political weight, they have no influence,” he continued.
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