African peace delegation ‘greeted’ by Russian missile barrage in Ukraine
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African leaders start peace mission in Ukraine despite the Russian missile barrage in the capital Kyiv
African leaders start peace mission in Ukraine despite the Russian missile barrage in the capital Kyiv.
Despite what Ukraine claimed was a barrage of Russian missiles aimed at them in the capital, a delegation of African leaders launched a peace mission in Kyiv on Friday.
At least two explosions shook the city, although Mayor Vitali Klitschko claimed air defenses were to blame. He stated there were no fatalities or significant damages in the city, but emergency services recorded four injuries, including one to a kid, in the Kyiv region.
Before scheduled talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later on Friday, the peace delegation, which included leaders from South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, Comoros, and Egypt, met with defense ministry representatives.
The leaders are due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Saturday and, with Kyiv and Moscow courting the Global South, see a chance to mediate in a war that has hit African countries by disrupting grain and other food supplies.
“The mission is proceeding well and as planned,” the South African presidency said on Twitter after the air strike.
The leaders are attempting to reach a compromise on a number of “confidence-building measures,” but Kyiv has said that any settlement must be based on its own peace plan and has started a counteroffensive to drive Russian occupier forces back.
The likelihood of substantive peace negotiations with Kyiv has been downplayed by the Kremlin, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
It claims that while the prerequisites for a peace process are not yet in place, it is open to outside approaches and ready to listen.
The African leaders, including Senegalese President Macky Sall and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, started their journey by visiting the village of Bucha, which is located outside of Kyiv.
Ukraine says Russian occupiers carried out executions, rapes, and torture in Bucha, and international investigators are collecting evidence of war crimes. Russia denies the allegations.
Air sirens later blared in Kyiv and Reuters saw the leaders heading into a hotel in the capital to use its air-raid shelter.
Ukraine’s air force said it downed six “Kinzhal” ballistic missiles, six cruise missiles, and two drones.
“Russian missiles are a message to Africa: Russia wants more war, not peace,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential staff, said: “Whenever a high-ranking foreign delegation visits Ukraine, Russia greets it with a missile attack on our peaceful cities.”
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Russia did not immediately comment on the events in Kyiv. It has said its air strikes are aimed against military and other infrastructure, though civilians have often been killed.
A draft framework document seen by Reuters says the objective of the African leaders’ mission is to promote peace and encourage the parties to agree to a diplomacy-led process.
Those measures could include a pullback of Russian troops, removal of Russian tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspension of the implementation of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant targeting Putin, and relief from the Western sanctions imposed on Russia, it indicated.
An agreement on cessation of hostilities could follow, and would need to be accompanied by negotiations between Russia and the West, the document stated.
African countries have been hit hard by the fallout from the war, which has aggravated food price inflation and worsened existing hunger crises.
A Black Sea grain export deal has helped alleviate some of that pressure, though Russia has suggested it might quit the agreement. Among the measures that could be proposed by the African leaders in the first stage of their engagement was an “unconditional grain and fertilizer deal”.
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