A delegation of African leaders arrived in Saint Petersburg today to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, a day after his proposal to mediate to calm the waters between Moscow and Kiev was rejected by Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky.
The delegation, headed by the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, proposed yesterday in the Ukrainian capital to intercede to defuse the conflict and called for “de-escalation on both sides.”
Zelensky, however, rejected the proposal, which he described as a “deception” by Moscow in the midst of a counteroffensive by its troops.
“Authorizing any type of negotiation with Russia, when the occupier is on our land, would be equivalent to freezing the war, freezing pain and suffering,” the president declared at a joint press conference with African leaders in Kiev.
NATO praised this mediation, but warned that only a “fair” solution that recognized Russian aggression would work.
For his part, Putin once again justified the invasion arguing that Ukraine is in the hands of “neo-Nazis” and said that his Ukrainian counterpart, of Jewish confession, was a “shame” for that people.
“I have many Jewish friends since my childhood. And they tell me that Zelensky is not a Jew, but the shame of the Jewish people. I am not kidding,” Putin told an economic forum in St. Petersburg.
The African delegation is made up, in addition to Ramaphosa, by the Senegalese president, Macky Sall; that of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, and Congolese, Ugandan and Egyptian representatives.
In Kiev, shortly after the arrival of the African delegation yesterday, a Russian missile attack caused at least seven injuries, police reported, quoted by the AFP news agency.
“Russian missiles are a message to Africa: Russia wants more war, not peace,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.
African leaders have their own interests at stake in this conflict as the continent has been hit hard by rising food prices following the crisis unleashed by the supply of Ukrainian grains and Russian fertilizers.
The African mediation proposal coincides with the launch of the counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops to try to recover the areas occupied by Russia since its invasion in February 2022.
Moscow reiterated that this offensive is a failure, and kyiv assures that it has liberated a group of towns and a hundred square kilometers of territory, especially on the southern front.
“Ukrainian forces continue to carry out both offensive and defensive operations with relative success,” Ganna Maliar, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, said yesterday.
In Bakhmut, in the east, “our troops are carrying out offensives, taking high-altitude areas and wooded areas to gradually expel the enemy,” he added.
This information is not verified by independent sources.
According to military analysts, Ukraine has not yet launched the bulk of its troops in its counteroffensive, and is testing the weak points of the Russian defense.
Putin announced yesterday that Russia had started to transfer nuclear weapons to the territory of Belarus.
“The first nuclear warheads were transferred to Belarusian territory. They are only the first, but before the end of the summer we will complete the process,” he said.
Later, at the same forum taking place in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin leader assured that Russia can attack Kiev at any time but does not do so “for various reasons” that cannot be revealed publicly.
“Russia destroyed five Patriot (anti-aircraft) systems in the vicinity of Kiev and why would it be difficult for it to destroy a building or installation in the center of Kiev? Of course not. But it does not do so for various reasons,” he insisted, according to a Sputnik report.
He also considered that Ukraine’s attacks on the Russian province of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, was an attempt to provoke Moscow into taking powerful retaliatory actions.
“It was an attempt to provoke us into taking powerful retaliatory actions. It was also an attempt to cause damage to the Kremlin and the residence of the Russian president,” he accused.
Source: Ambito
