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JOHANNESBURG – As South Africa comes under increasing pressure due to its close ties with Russia, the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said on Tuesday that the leaders of six African countries will visit Moscow and Kyiv on a “peace mission” to end the war in. Ukraine.
Ramaphosa said both President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine welcomed the initiative – which includes Egypt, Zambia, Senegal, Uganda and the Republic of Congo – in separate phone calls over the weekend. Mr Ramaphosa’s announcement makes South Africa the latest in a string of outsiders aiming to become mediators. China’s envoy, Li Hui, the government’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, is expected in Ukraine and Russia this week in an effort to help negotiate an end to the war. And Pope Francis said the Vatican was involved in a secret “mission” to establish peace.
Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin did not immediately comment or confirm Mr Ramaphosa’s statement, and the timing of the visit remains unclear. Mr Zelensky has made it clear that he will reject all calls for peace talks that do not include a demand that the Russian military first withdraw from all parts of Ukraine. Mr. Putin has shown no signs of wanting to make concessions.
Tensions between the United States and South Africa, which have officially said they will not get involved in the conflict, have increased in recent days. Last week, the United States ambassador to South Africa accused the government of supplying weapons and ammunition through an approved Russian ship that was allowed to dock at a South African naval base last December. South African officials denied the allegations and appointed a judge to investigate the incident.
“The conflict in the region, because it does not affect Africa directly in the form of deaths and damage to our infrastructure, it has an impact on many Africans,” Mr Ramaphosa told reporters during a joint media conference with the visiting Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong. in Cape Town. The war has caused food insecurity in Africa, with the price of fertilizer and fuel rising, he added.
Mr Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly newsletter on Monday that the war in Ukraine has brought “tremendous pressure on the country to abandon its non-aligned position and support what is becoming a contest between Russia and the West.”
South Africa in February hosted naval exercises with Russia and China and allowed two sanctioned Russian ships to use military facilities. This week, the head of the South African Army visited Moscow for a bilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart.
South African officials must also face the question of whether they will honor an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Mr Putin’s arrest if he attends a meeting of the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – to be held in South Africa in August.
The issue sparked a public debate over South Africa’s membership of the court, pitting the ruling African National Congress’s historic ties to Russia against the country’s economic ties to the United States and Europe.
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