Putin Tells African Leaders Russia 'Open to Constructive Dialogue'

Russian President Vladimir Putin holding talks with the African leaders in St. Petersburg (EPA)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holding talks with the African leaders in St. Petersburg (EPA)
TT

Putin Tells African Leaders Russia 'Open to Constructive Dialogue'

Russian President Vladimir Putin holding talks with the African leaders in St. Petersburg (EPA)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holding talks with the African leaders in St. Petersburg (EPA)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday told African leaders that Russia was “open to constructive dialogue with anyone who wants to establish peace on the principles of fairness and acknowledgement of the legitimate interests of the parties”.

Putin first welcomed leaders from Senegal, Egypt, Zambia, Uganda, Congo Republic, Comoros and South Africa to the 18th-century Konstantinovsky Palace on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, stressing Russia’s commitment to the continent.

Putin further reiterated his position that Ukraine and the West had started the conflict long before Russia sent its armed forces over the border in February last year.

He said the West, not Russia, was responsible for a sharp rise in global food prices early last year.

He told the delegation that Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports that Russia has permitted for the past year were doing nothing to alleviate Africa’s difficulties with high food prices because they had largely gone to wealthy countries.

He said Russia had never refused talks with the Ukrainian side, which had been blocked by Kyiv.

The African plan includes a call for all children caught up in the conflict to be returned to where they came from, but Putin said Russia was not preventing any Ukrainian children from returning home.

The African leaders are seeking agreement on a series of “confidence building measures” even as Ukraine last week began a counteroffensive to push back Russian forces from Ukrainian territory they occupy.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa laid out the 10 points of the African initiative, after Comoros President Azali Assoumani, current chairman of the African Union, told Putin:

“We’ve come here to listen to you, and through you the Russian people, and encourage you to enter negotiations with Ukraine in order to put an end to the difficult ordeal.

“We gave ourselves this mission because, as Africans, unfortunately, we have had to manage numerous conflicts, and it’s through dialogue and negotiations that we have succeeded at resolving them.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had said after meeting the leaders in Kyiv on Friday that peace talks with Russia would be possible only after Moscow withdrew its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory.



Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Urges Allies to Stop Watching, Start Acting on North Korea

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks at the opening of the Nordic Council session in Reykjavik, Iceland October 29, 2024. (Magnus Froederberg/norden.org/Nordic Council/Handout via Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks at the opening of the Nordic Council session in Reykjavik, Iceland October 29, 2024. (Magnus Froederberg/norden.org/Nordic Council/Handout via Reuters)
TT

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Urges Allies to Stop Watching, Start Acting on North Korea

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks at the opening of the Nordic Council session in Reykjavik, Iceland October 29, 2024. (Magnus Froederberg/norden.org/Nordic Council/Handout via Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks at the opening of the Nordic Council session in Reykjavik, Iceland October 29, 2024. (Magnus Froederberg/norden.org/Nordic Council/Handout via Reuters)

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukraine's allies to stop "watching" and take action to tackle the presence of North Korean troops in Russia before they start confronting his country in combat.

Zelenskiy, in a video posted on Telegram, said North Korea had made progress in its military capability, missile deployment and weapons production and "now unfortunately they will learn modern warfare".

"The first thousands of soldiers from North Korea are near the Ukrainian border. Ukrainians will be forced to defend themselves against them," he said. "And the world will watch again."

Zelenskiy said Ukraine had pinpointed every location where North Korean soldiers were posted in Russia. But Kyiv's Western allies, he said, had not supplied the long-range weapons needed to strike them.

"But instead of such necessary long-range capability, America watches, Britain watches, Germany watches...," he said.

"Everyone in the world who truly wants the Russian war against Ukraine not to expand....must not just watch. They must act. Words about the inadmissibility of escalation and expansion of war must be matched with actions."

The slick three-minute video interspersed his comments with images of North Korea's soldiers and missile launches as well as images of the war and the United Nations.

The video follows an interview with South Korea's KBS television on Thursday in which Zelenskiy blasted what he described as his allies' "zero" response to Russia's deployment of North Korean troops.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday there were 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in the southern Kursk region where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion in August.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Friday that his country would back Russia until it achieved victory in the Ukraine war.