Ramaphosa kicks off peace mission in Kyiv without critical security detail

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday headed into delicate peace negotiations in Kyiv, Ukraine, a war zone effectively under bombardment for the past few days, with only four to six close protectors armed with pistols.

The chartered SAA A340-313 passenger jet, ferrying a highly specialised team of security personnel meant to provide critical security for the president, was stuck at Warsaw’s Chopin Airport while tense diplomatic and security negotiations were playing out on the tarmac in the airport’s cargo section.

More than 100 members of the presidential protection service (PPS) together with 11 South African journalists have been prevented from flying on to provide specialised protection to Ramaphosa and other African heads of state. The Polish police confiscated their weapons due to issues with the permits’ validity.

Ramaphosa is on the first leg of a multinational peace mission to forge a peace solution between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year. 

SA has been under pressure to abandon its neutral stance and condemn Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, leading to a series of diplomatic standoffs, particularly with the US, that have endangered trade relations with the West. Poland is part of Nato and supports Ukraine.

Ramaphosa arrived in Kyiv on Friday morning. Vincent Magwenya, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, when asked telephonically about any safety concerns said: “The president is safe. He is currently being briefed along with other heads of state and government by the Ukrainian ministry of defence.”

He did not elaborate on whether Ramaphosa at least had his own protectors with him.

Reuters reported on Friday that the African leaders had to take shelter in an air raid bunker while air raid sirens were sounding. Ukrainian air defence systems reportedly neutralised six ballistic missiles launched by Russia from the Black Sea.

Security snags

The presidency sought to allay concerns on Friday, with Magwenya saying in a video on Twitter that the programme was “proceeding as planned”.

His comments came after the dramatic scenes unfolded at the airport in Warsaw in the early hours of Friday morning. 

The flight’s planning earlier hit a number of snags due to the availability, cost and insurance concerns for aircraft charter companies with Ukraine and Russia being considered high risk countries.

A former South African Air Force pilot, who used to fly presidential jets, provided some insight as to what could have caused the logistical, security and aviation-related problems on the SAA charter flight.

“The SAA team in conjunction with the PPS team would have needed to obtain overflight permission for any of the countries the flight would have crossed. That can take some time and in this case they needed to ask Eurocontrol, the European Union’s flight control entity, for such permission.

“I suspect — due to the urgency — that they left before the permission was granted, which would explain why the flight was circling in the Mediterranean Sea south of Italy because the crew still did not have the permission.”

The flight was eventually allowed to continue but landed shortly before Ramaphosa landed with Inkwazi, the presidential Boeing business jet. The Polish authorities then confiscated the security team’s massive load of weapons and equipment.

“To obtain permits for weapons on such a mission a complete list of all weapons, its serial numbers together with all the details of the rest of the equipment’s should have been provided according to the requirements of the country visited — Poland in this case.

“Some countries do not allow a whole force such as this with that many weapons just for a single president. Some countries like the US don’t even allow close protectors to carry weapons as it is considered that country’s responsibility to protect visiting VVIP’s.

“Gen Wally Rhoode mentioned that the Polish authorities needed original permits for the armaments and that they only had copies. That is also quite normal for a country to insist on original permits but that should have been cleared with Poland weeks before already.

“Somebody was not working according to Poland’s requirements when the consignment of weapons were loaded. During one VVIP trip I was involved in years ago in Fiji that country confiscated the jet because of one firearm missing on the list of approved ones.”

According to him SAA had never flown to Poland regularly and as such, they were flying into uncharted territory. The flight was also flying under SAA’s commercial licence as flight SA2962, while presidential or special charters would normally fly under an official callsign indicating that it was not a commercial flight.

That might have caused some issues with the Polish authorities too especially with the weapons and security personnel on board, he said.

Magwenya in a brief statement said the South African embassy in Warsaw was trying its best to ensure the SAA flight could at least continue on the Russian leg of the trip to St Petersburg where Ramaphosa and the other heads of state were to meet with President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.