Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to meet a delegation from African leaders to discuss a potential peace plan for the war, according to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Written by Chris Muhizi Minembwe Capital News 4:00pm Nairobi Kenya Time.
“My conversations with the two leaders demonstrated that they are both ready to receive the African leaders and to have discussions on how this conflict can be brought to an end,” Ramaphosa said at a news conference with Singapore’s prime minister.
Although Ukraine’s official position for any peace settlement is that all Russian forces must depart from its territory, the plan’s specifics have not been made public.
Based to a statement from the South African Presidency, Putin and Zelenskiy had agreed to receive the team in their respective capital cities of Moscow and Kyiv.
The leaders of Senegal, Uganda, Egypt, the Republic of the Congo, and Zambia are all in favor of the peace proposal.
a statement from Ramaphosa, the United States and the United Kingdom have voiced “cautious” support for the move, and the U.N. Secretary General has also been informed of it.
Uganda, Ethiopia, and Congo, like many other African countries, have taken a neutral stance on Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, and all three either abstained from voting or did not attend the March UN General Assembly resolution denouncing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
When the UN General Assembly decided to suspend Russia’s membership in the Human Rights Council back in April, it brought to light the reluctance of many African countries to take sides in the conflict in Ukraine.
Only 10 of the 54 African nations spoke in support of the motion, while the other nine boycotted or did not participate.
This number is much lower than the 28 African nations who voted in favor of the UN resolution passed in March, which demanded that Russian soldiers leave Ukraine “immediately, completely, and unconditionally.”
Later, President Cyril Ramaphosa justified the choice made by his administration to abstain from casting a vote on the UN resolution.
Ramaphosa said that South Africa was unable to support the resolution because it did not stress the need of peaceful negotiation in ending the violence in a statement made immediately after the UN voting.
Intellectuals, diplomats, and opposition politicians in South Africa were among those who fiercely criticized the country’s lack of reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.