The Brazzaville Foundation, which is preparing the African mission to Ukraine, said that a meeting of African leaders with Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected on June 17 in St. Petersburg, and Volodymyr Zelensky is to meet with African leaders in Kiev on June 16.
"The Brazzaville Foundation is pleased to announce that HE Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, will receive on Friday 16 June 2023 in Kiev, and HE Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will receive on Saturday 17 June 2023 in St Petersburg, the following Heads of State [...]" the statement obtained by Sputnik reveals.
According to the facilitator, the African delegation will include Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa; Azali Assoumani, President of the African Union and President of the Union of Comoros; Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville); Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda; Macky Sall, President of Senegal and Hakainde Hichilema, President of Zambia.
Furthermore, they are also expected to be joined by Egyptian President Fattah al-Sisi.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian leader spoke to Ramaphosa over the phone, and the both presidents agreed that the delegation will meet Putin to discuss the peace initiative "in the near future." However, the Kremlin did not name the specific dates for the visit of the African delegation to Russia.
According to Moses Kizige, Uganda's ambassador to Moscow, the East African nation hopes that the African Union's peace initiative on Russia and the Ukraine would be successful. He told Sputnik Africa that back home, they tend to "resolve the problems by talking to the people who don't agree with us on many issues."
Thus, Uganda believes that only via "peaceful negotiations" the parties can resolve the current crisis "as soon as yesterday."
The founder of the Brazzaville Foundation and initiator of the mission, Jean-Yves Olivier, previously told Sputnik that the main goal of the mission of African countries in Ukraine is to initiate and assist in establishing a dialogue between the two countries, noting that negotiations through the mission of African countries will be held without preconditions, and the mission itself is the first of its kind that both Putin and Zelensky have agreed to accept.