Russian President Vladimir Putin hold talks with a delegation of African leaders in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 17, 2023. /CFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin opened talks with an African peace mission in St. Petersburg on Saturday. The group traveled to Russia a day after visiting Ukraine and meeting the country's President Vladimir Zelenskyy, hoping their meditation will help end the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has been dragging on for over a year already.
The African delegation included South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, Comoros President Othman Ghazali, and the President of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, as well as Egyptian PM Mostafa Madbouly and senior officials from the Republic of Congo and Uganda.
During the three-hour talks, the African delegation presented Putin with a 10-point peace roadmap, which includes de-escalation of the conflict on both sides, diplomatic negotiations, ensuring sovereignty of states in accordance with the UN Charter, exchange of captives, lift of restrictions on trade in grain, post-war reconstruction and others.
In response, Putin said that Russia is open to constructive dialogue and values the balanced attitude of African countries to the situation in Ukraine and their desire to settle the crisis.
He pointed out that the Russian side has never rejected negotiations with Ukraine, and that it was Ukraine that withdrew from the talks on its own initiative, although a peace agreement has been preliminarily signed in Istanbul. He added that no one could guarantee that Ukraine would not do the same to any new deals in the future.
Putin also said that Russia is ready to review any proposals from African states on the Ukrainian settlement, and he insisted that Russia was entitled to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk under the UN Charter, a claim that had been rejected by Zelenskyy, who said on Friday that peace talks with Russia would be possible only after Moscow withdraws its forces from Ukrainian territory, by which he means withdrawal from the two regions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Constantine Palace in Strelna, St. Petersburg, Russia, June 17, 2023. /CFP
Comoro's president stated that the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine must end as it has severely affected the whole African continent. The conflict has disrupted grain and other food supplies and aggravated price inflation, invoking unprecedented threats to food and energy security for Africa, he added, urging Putin to negotiate with Kyiv.
Putin said that the West, not Russia, was responsible for the sharp rise in global food prices.
"It was caused by the fact that Western countries began to engage in economically unjustified emissions to solve their problems related to the coronavirus pandemic," he said.
He told the delegation that Russia agreed upon and maintained the UN-facilitated grain deal, which aims to alleviate food supply issues for the less secure nations, but the deal did not work exactly as designed and Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports had largely gone to wealthy countries instead.
"As of June 15, 31.7 million tonnes of agricultural produce were exported from Ukrainian ports (and) 976,000 tonnes, 3.1 percent, were sent to the African countries in the most need," Putin noted.
He also touched on the relocation of children, saying the Russian authorities have relocated children from the conflict area legally and don't have any intention to separate children from their parents. "If, of course, their relatives show up," the head of state said.
Ramaphosa, in a bilateral meeting with Putin on Saturday, said the meeting made it possible for the African delegation to more clearly understand the root causes of the Ukraine crisis, and they will continue the discussion at the Russia-Africa Summit in July.