Much was at stake on Saturday as President Cyril Ramaphosa entered closed-door talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as part of an African delegation to try to create a pathway towards peace negotiations after the invasion of Ukraine.
The presidency is under pressure to explain the apparent shambolic planning of the trip, which included Ramaphosa travelling to a war zone without a full security detail and a media contingent from SA stranded in Poland. It also tried unsuccessfully to play down Ramaphosa retreating to a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, amid an apparent missile attack from Russia.
Ramaphosa’s meeting with Putin will also have an impact on whether SA can host the Brics Summit.
SA faced a political, economic and diplomatic conundrum after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant of arrest against Putin, calling into question how Pretoria would act if the Russian leader showed up for the bloc’s annual summit in August.
Putin told African leaders on Saturday that Russia welcomed their balanced approach to the conflict in Ukraine and was open to discussions, according to a Reuters report.
“We are open to a constructive dialogue with all those who want peace based on the principles of justice and consideration of the legitimate interests of the parties,” Putin said.
Ramaphosa and other African presidents are meeting Putin at the Russian government’s 18th-century Konstantinovsky Palace in St Petersburg after visiting Kyiv on Friday.
“As the African continent represented by seven countries who are here, we do believe there is a contribution we can make. And we make this contribution with the greatest respect to both countries,” Ramaphosa said on Saturday.
He said African countries were feeling the strain of food and fuel price increases due to the war. “It is in our collective interest that the war should come to an end.
“We would like to receive further engagements with regards to the processes that will lead to the end of this war. We articulated this point with [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelensky, and he agreed that African countries can play a role.”
Zelensky had said after meeting the leaders in Kyiv on Friday that peace talks with Russia would be possible only after Moscow withdrew its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory.
Ramaphosa on Friday 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.
After presentations from Ramaphosa and other leaders, Putin reiterated his position that Ukraine and the West had started the conflict long before Russia sent its armed forces over the border in February 2022.
He said the West was responsible for a sharp rise in global food prices early in 2022. The Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports that Russia has permitted for the past year are not alleviating Africa’s difficulties, he said, and high food prices are a result of the exports going predominantly to wealthy countries.
Putin also said Russia had never refused talks with the Ukrainian side, but the talks had been blocked by Kyiv.
The African plan includes a call for all the children caught up in the conflict to be returned to where they came from, though Putin said Russia was not preventing any Ukrainian children from returning home. “We took them out of a conflict zone, saving their lives,” he said.
With Reuters
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