Russia, Ukraine to receive African mission to discuss potential peace plan, Pretoria says

CAPE TOWN - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky had agreed to meet a group of African leaders to discuss a potential peace plan for the conflict.

Details of the plan have not been publicly divulged, although Ukraine’s stated position for any peace deal is that all Russian troops must withdraw from its territory.

“My discussions with the two leaders demonstrated that they are both ready to receive the African leaders and to have discussion on how this conflict can be brought to an end,” Mr Ramaphosa told a joint press briefing with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Cape Town.

“Whether that will succeed or not is going to depend on the discussions that will be held.”

Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky had agreed to receive the mission in their respective capitals, Moscow and Kyiv, said a South African Presidency statement.

The peace plan is also backed by the African leaders of Senegal, Uganda, Egypt, the Republic of the Congo and Zambia.

Mr Ramaphosa said the United States and Britain had expressed “cautious” support for the plan, and the United Nations Secretary-General had also been briefed about the initiative.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022,

but the war has largely reached a stalemate, although Ukraine is

expected to start a counteroffensive soon

to try to take back land occupied by Russia.

Considered one of Moscow’s closest allies on the continent, South Africa says it is impartial and has abstained from voting on UN resolutions on the war.

Last week, it

rejected claims by the US Ambassador to South Africa

that weapons were loaded onto a Russian vessel from a naval base in Cape Town in December. REUTERS