Leaders of seven African countries participating in the Russia-Ukraine peace initiative plan to visit Ukraine and Russia again and intend to encourage Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to start talks with Moscow, South African Ambassador to Russia Mzuvukile Jeff Maqetuka told Russian media.
According to the South African diplomat, Zelensky has signed a decree that prevents him from negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin, so it is now up to Kiev to figure out how to deal with this decree. He suggested that Zelensky's decree was "just a matter of rhetoric."
African leaders will work on how to resolve this issue, Maqetuka added. He noted that the next round of talks will begin in Kiev, where, according to him, the heads of state will convey the position expressed by Putin in St. Petersburg, and then they will go to Russia and "hopefully" be able to present a solution to the conflict.
According to Ambassador Maqetuka, such a visit could take place after the elections in South Africa this summer.
In June, representatives of seven African states, led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, visited Kiev and St. Petersburg to present their 10-point peace initiative. This included de-escalation of the conflict on both sides, diplomatic negotiations, ensuring the sovereignty of states in accordance with the UN Charter, prisoner exchange, post-war reconstruction, and other points.
In response to some of these points, Putin pointed out that Ukraine itself had withdrawn from negotiations with Russia, although a peace agreement had been initialed in Istanbul, which he demonstrated to the African delegation.