Saturday June 17, 2023

AFRICAN LEADERS CALL UPON RUSSIA AND UKRAINE TO

SETTLE WAR THROUGH NEGOTIATIONS AND DIPLOMATIC
MEANS

African leaders have urged Russia and Ukraine to settle the war
between them through negotiations and diplomatic means.

South Africa President, H.E Cyril Ramaphosa who led a delegation

of African leaders to Ukraine yesterday, said the conflict is affecting
Africa negatively and that there was a need to de-escalate it.

The leaders from seven African countries visited Kyiv, as part of a

mission aimed at brokering peace between warring countries of
Russia and Ukraine.

“In our view it's important to listen carefully to what both countries
have to say. We are also going to listen to President Putin with
regard to how he sees the road to peace. But we also take in
cognizance of a number of other proposals that have been made by
a number of other parties around the world and we do believe that
this process for peace as much as it is complex, it requires that all
viewpoints must be put on the table,” President Ramaphosa told
the media shortly after a closed door peace mission meeting with
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

“This war must be settled and there should be peace through

negotiations and diplomatic means, and we should advance
towards that peace because all wars in the end do come to an end.
And we believe that this war should be brought to an end as
quickly as possible,” he added.

On his part, President Zelenskyy rejected the idea of peace talks

with Russia, which he said would simply freeze the war in Ukraine.

“I clearly said several times at our meeting that to allow any

negotiations with Russia now that the occupier is on our land is to
freeze the war, to freeze pain and suffering,” Zelenskyy told the
press.

“The only thing Russia is interested in is producing more missiles

and committing more crimes against the UN Charter. Any
negotiations is considered by the Russian leadership as the ability
to gain more force and even to have more aggression against
Ukraine,” he further stressed.

President Zelenskyy also extended invitations to African leaders to

participate in a global peace formula summit.

“I saw the prospects of our work on specific points of the peace

formula, and, certainly, I invited the African states to participate
in the peace summit that we are preparing.”

In his speech to the Halifax International Security Forum on 19

November 2022, President Zelenskyy offered his view on what
must be negotiated to end the war. In what he labeled the

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“Ukrainian Peace Formula,”. He laid out ten issue areas that
require resolution in order to secure a durable peace and to “make
Russian aggression impossible”.

The other leaders who attended the mediation meeting include; the
former Ugandan Prime Minister and Special Envoy, the Rt. Hon.
Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda who represented H.E Yoweri Kaguta
Museveni- the President of the Republic of Uganda, H.E Macky
Sall- the President of Senegal, H.E Azali Assoumani - President of
Comoros who also doubles as the current Chair of African Union
(AU), H.E Hichilema Hakainde- the President of Zambia, H.E
Mostafa Madbouly- Prime minister of Egypt and a Special Envoy
representing the President of Congo Brazzaville.

President Museveni was unable to travel to Ukraine due to Covid-

19. He is currently in self-isolation at Nakasero State Lodge.

The leaders will now proceed to Russia to meet President Vladimir

Putin over the same cause of discussing a potential peace plan to
resolve the Conflict.

The war which has taken more than a year has fueled economic
insecurity around the world.

ENDS

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