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.
