Several explosions rocked Kyiv on Friday and air raid sirens resounded throughout the city as a peacekeeping mission headed by seven African leaders and led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa arrived. The delegation, which includes leaders from Senegal, the Comoros and Egypt, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and intends to do the same with Russian President Vladimir Putin today in Saint Petersburg.
Ukraine’s air defense said it shot down 12 missiles, including six Kinzhal and six Kalibr ballistic cruise missiles. At least three people were injured and dozens of private houses and other buildings were damaged by the debris, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said.
A Reuters television crew watched African leaders arrive in Kyiv in a convoy of vehicles and enter a hotel to use their bomb shelter. The danger over, the African delegation paid tribute to the victims of the Russian occupation in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv.
“Heads of State and Government visit the mass grave located behind St. Andrew’s Orthodox Church where 458 civilians who lost their lives during the initial phase of the conflict were buried,” the South African president wrote on Twitter. Unlike all the other international leaders who have visited this site, Ramaphosa avoided mentioning the responsibility of Russian forces in the deaths.
The African peacekeeping mission, which includes South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Senegalese President Macky Sall, may propose a series of “confidence-building measures” during its initial mediation efforts, according to a draft document. framework to which Reuters had access.
The document states that the objective of the mission is “to promote the importance of peace and encourage the parties to accept a process of negotiations led by diplomacy.” Such measures could include the withdrawal of Russian troops, the withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspending the execution of the ICC arrest warrant against Putin and relaxing sanctions. This could be followed by a cessation of hostilities agreement that should be accompanied by negotiations between Russia and the West, the document says.
South Africa, a country that is part of the International Criminal Court, is the host of the next BRICS summit (alliance formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) scheduled for next August and to which Vladimir Putin is invited . As a member country of the ICC, South Africa would be obliged to arrest the Russian president in case he set foot in his country. For the moment, Moscow has not confirmed whether Putin will travel to the meeting in Durban and Pretoria has not wanted to clarify how it would proceed if the president showed up for the meeting.
This Wednesday, the Kremlin asserted that it is still not clear “how the South African side intends to put into practice the illegal decision of the International Criminal Court” ahead of the summit.
Despite the fact that in February it carried out joint naval maneuvers with Russia and China, South Africa has assured since the beginning of the war that it is neutral in this conflict.
The mission comes after the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has pushed back Russian forces in some areas. Kyiv claims that its own peace initiative, which provides for the withdrawal of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territories, must be the basis of any solution to the war.
