Ramaphosa to discuss UN charter, Brics summit with Putin

Kyiv — President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday he will have a bilateral meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Brics summit.

His discussions with Putin will be also about respect for the UN’s charter. 

Ramaphosa was speaking after a meeting between African leaders and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. 

Ramaphosa also emphasised the need for a de-escalation on both sides of the war in Ukraine, and peace should be achieved through negotiations and diplomatic means. 

Zelensky, meanwhile, said after meeting African leaders that peace talks with Russia would only be possible after Moscow withdraws its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory.

Zelensky said he failed to understand what could be gained from the leaders meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday in St Petersburg, Russia’s second city.

“This is their decision, how logical it is, I don’t really understand,” he told reporters.

Zelensky signalled no change in Ukraine’s long-held stance on peace talks, despite the African delegation’s hopes of mediating an end to the war that has raged since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

“To allow any negotiations with Russia now while the occupier is on our land is to freeze the war, to freeze everything: pain and suffering,” Zelensky told a joint press conference with the delegation.

“We need real peace, and therefore, a real withdrawal of Russian troops from our entire independent land.”

Ukraine stood by its own peace initiative, based on a complete Russian withdrawal, but invited the African leaders to take part in an international peace summit that is being drawn up.

The delegation, including leaders of Senegal, Egypt, Zambia, SA and the Comoros, met Zelensky after being greeted in Kyiv by a volley of Russian missiles.

Ramaphosa said the leaders had come “to share the African perspective” and saw talks with Russia as part of the mission.

He recalled that SA’s former president Nelson Mandela favoured negotiations and that “even when the conflict becomes most intense, that is when peace should be made”.

With Kyiv and Moscow courting the Global South, the African leaders see a chance to mediate in a war that has hit African countries by disrupting grain and other food supplies and aggravating price inflation.

Ramaphosa said African countries were prepared to participate further in a peace pact in Ukraine, and called for the free flow of grain. Ukraine is a major global producer and exporter in peacetime.

African nations have largely remained neutral on the Ukraine war. Some, notably SA, received support from the Soviet Union for their independence movements and have cordial relations with Russia, but most have closer economic links with the US and Europe.

The African leaders are seeking agreement on a series of “confidence building measures” even as Ukraine last week began a counteroffensive to push back Russian forces from Ukrainian territory they occupy.

The Kremlin has played down the chances of meaningful peace talks with Kyiv. It says conditions for a peace process are not in place, but that it is ready to listen and is open to outside initiatives.

Reuters