2023-07-28 17:01:00
While an African delegation had already offered to mediate in the conflict, last June and without success, Vladimir Putin reaffirmed his interest in their peace proposals.
The Russian president has been talking since Thursday with his counterparts from African countries. After announcing the free export of 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes of grain to six countries on the continent, Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would “carefully” examine African proposals to find a solution to the armed conflict in Ukraine. .
“Let’s take for example the initiative of a series of African states to settle the Ukrainian crisis. It is a serious problem, we cannot not study it”, he declared in front of several senior officials, during the plenary session of the second Russia-Africa Summit held in Saint Petersburg.
“It means a lot, because before, mediation missions were monopolized by countries with supposedly advanced democracy. Now, Africa is also ready to help solve problems that seem outside its priority area of interest”, added the Russian president.
“We respect your initiatives and study them carefully,” he continued.
In mid-June, the African offer had been rejected by kyiv
The Russia-Africa summit comes more than a week after the expiration of the grain deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grains via the Black Sea, raising concern among African countries.
In mid-June, an African delegation went to Ukraine, then to Russia, to offer its mediation in the conflict, without however achieving immediate results.
kyiv then rejected the African offer, believing that it would freeze the conflict without ensuring the departure of Russian troops. The Kremlin had judged that the African plan was “very difficult to implement”, while ensuring that Vladimir Putin had “expressed his interest in examining it”.
African peace proposals included “de-escalation on both sides”, “recognition of the sovereignty” of countries as recognized by the UN and “security guarantees” for all parties.
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