President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the African Peace Mission to Ukraine and Russia as impactful.
Ramaphosa has concluded a two-day visit to Ukraine and Russia, where African leaders proposed a path for peace to resolve the 16-month conflict.
The Presidency says this proposal lays the foundation for future engagements.
After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, African heads of state from South Africa, Zambia, Comoros, Senegal, and the heads of government from Congo Brazzaville, Egypt, and Uganda met with President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
While the mission’s ultimate goal is to help end the war, Ramaphosa believes the African group has made a positive contribution by being the only one that has had back-to-back engagements with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia.
“I think the most important outcome of these discussions was: One, the willingness to talk. The other one is the willingness to go through the various issues that we raised and the commitment that we will engage further, and as it is now, the continent is going to have a summit with Russia, which is the second summit. The first one having been held a number of years ago, and we will continue our discussions with President Putin then, and in the intervening period, we will be talking to President Zelenskyy because we would like to know his response to some of the other issues we raised.”
African leaders urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to settle Russia’s conflict with Ukraine
Ramaphosa has told a meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, that the delegation of African leaders recognises the sovereignty of countries as outlined in the United Nations charter.
African leaders urge negotiations and diplomacy to resolve Russia-Ukraine conflict:
