Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russia and Ukraine
Russian President to African leaders: We are “carefully” studying your proposals for peace with Ukraine
Posted on: July 28, 2023: 04:25 PM GST Last updated: July 28, 2023: 05:33 PM GST
Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated on Friday that Russia is ready to hold negotiations with Ukraine, but Kiev refuses to participate in them.
Putin’s comment came in response to statements made by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, who spoke In front of a Russian-African summit In St. Petersburg, he said that the union attaches great importance to the integrity and sovereignty of states and the peaceful settlement of crises through negotiations.
From the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg
Kyiv said it was not ready to enter into negotiations with Russia It controls a fifth of Ukrainian territory since the war began 17 months ago. Russia has repeatedly stated that any talks must take into account these “new realities”.
Today, Putin confirmed the refusal of the United States and NATO to negotiate with Russia on the issue of ensuring equal security for all countries, noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared the impossibility of negotiating with Russia.
Putin said at the plenary session of the second Russia-Africa summit: “All contradictions must be resolved during negotiations, but the problem is that they refuse to negotiate with us, the basis of the conflict are threats to Russia’s security from the United States and NATO, and they, I repeat once again, refuse to negotiate on “Ensuring equal security for everyone, including for Russia. And Ukraine itself, or rather the current Ukrainian regime, refuses to negotiate. This was officially announced, and the President of Ukraine adopted a decree on this issue, prohibiting negotiations.”
Earlier in the day, Putin said Moscow was “carefully” studying proposals put forward by some African leaders to end the conflict in Ukraine.
The African delegation during his meeting with Putin last June
Putin explained to a number of senior African officials: “Let us take, for example, the initiative of a group of African countries to settle the Ukrainian crisis… This means a lot, because in the past mediation tasks were the preserve of countries considered advanced democracies. Today, Africa is also ready to help solve problems that seem outside their primary area of interest. “We respect your initiatives and are studying them carefully,” Putin said.
African leaders sought to mediate a solution to the conflict. In mid-June, a delegation that included a number of African leaders visited Moscow and Kiev, and during their meeting they separately called on Putin and Zelensky to stop hostilities, without their efforts achieving any significant results.
Ukraine, at the time, rejected the solution Submitted by the African delegationsaying it would freeze the conflict without ensuring the departure of Russian forces.
For its part, the Kremlin considered the African plan “difficult to implement,” stressing at the same time that Putin “expressed interest in studying it.”
The African peace proposals included “de-escalation of the two camps”, “recognition of the sovereignty” of countries as recognized by the United Nations, and “security guarantees” to all parties.
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2023-07-28 13:33:43
