Putin meets African leaders in Russia to discuss Ukraine peace plan

The seven African leaders – presidents of Comoros, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia, as well as Egypt’s prime minister and top envoys from the Republic of Congo and Uganda – visited Ukraine on Friday to try to help end the nearly 16-month-old war.

The African leaders then travelled to St Petersburg on Saturday to meet Mr Putin who was attending Russia’s showpiece international economic forum.

Details about the delegation’s proposals were thin.

Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said after the three-hour meeting that the Africans’ peace plan consisted of 10 elements, but “was not formulated on paper”.

“The peace initiative proposed by African countries is very difficult to implement, difficult to compare positions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

But ”President Putin has shown interest in considering it”.

“He spoke about our position. Not all provisions can be correlated with the main elements of our position, but this does not mean that we do not need to continue working,” Mr Peskov said.

“The main conclusion, in my opinion, from today’s conversation is that our partners from the African Union have shown an understanding of the true causes of the crisis that was created by the West, and have shown an understanding that it is necessary to get out of this situation on the basis of addressing these underlying causes,” Mr Lavrov said.

Russia says that it was effectively forced to send troops into Ukraine because it was threatened by Ukraine’s desire to join Nato and by the country’s support from the United States and western Europe.

Speaking at the economic forum on Friday, Mr Putin declared that the first Russian tactical nuclear weapons have been deployed to Belarus, describing the move as a deterrent against western efforts to defeat Russia in Ukraine.

He previously said that the deployment would begin in July.

Asked if he could order the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Mr Putin said that there was no need for that but that Moscow could use its nuclear arsenals in case of a “threat to the Russian statehood”.

“In that case, we will certainly use all the means that the Russian state has. There should be no doubt about that,” he said.

The mission to Ukraine, the first of its kind by African leaders, comes in the wake of other peace initiatives, such as one by China, and carries particular importance for Africa, which relies on food and fertiliser deliveries from Russia and Ukraine.

The war has impeded exports from one of the world’s most important breadbaskets.

“This conflict is affecting Africa negatively,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a news conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and four other African leaders after their closed-door talks on Friday.

Mr Ramaphosa and others acknowledged the intensity of the hostilities but said all wars must come to an end and emphasised their willingness to help expedite that.

“I do believe that Ukrainians feel that they must fight and not give up. The road to peace is very hard,” he said, adding that “there is a need to bring this conflict to an end sooner rather than later”.

The delegation, including Presidents Macky Sall of Senegal and Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia, represent a cross-section of African views on the war.

South Africa, Senegal and Uganda have avoided censuring Moscow over the conflict, while Egypt, Zambia and Comoros voted against Russia last year in a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Moscow’s invasion.

Many African nations have long had close ties with Moscow, dating back to the Cold War when the Soviet Union supported their anti-colonial struggles.

Speaking during Friday’s news conference, Comoros President Azali Assoumani floated the idea of a “road map” to peace, prompting questions from Mr Zelensky who sought a clarification and said he did not want “any surprises” from their visit to Mr Putin.