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The leaders of four African nations are scheduled to go to Ukraine on Friday and Russia on Saturday in an effort to broker peace between the nations locked in a more than yearlong war.
The delegation includes the leaders of South Africa, Zambia, Comoros and Senegal. The leaders of the Republic of Congo, Egypt and Uganda were also supposed to travel to Ukraine but will be sending representatives instead, a spokesman for the South African president told News24, a South African news outlet. The African leaders will first meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv before heading to Russia to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin in St. Petersburg.
The unusual diplomatic mission has drawn a variety of reactions, including curiosity, hope and skepticism. Many African nations have been at odds with the United States and its allies, which have condemned Russia’s invasion, and supported Ukraine with billions in arms and sought to isolate Moscow with economic sanctions.
More than a dozen African countries have abstained from United Nations votes to condemn Russia or call on its withdrawal from Ukraine, with a handful voting in support of Russia. The stakes of the war are particularly high for Africa, which has seen crucial supply chains, particularly for agricultural products, disrupted because of the fighting. Russia has worked hard since the invasion to cement its alliances on the continent, where it is a major supplier of arms.
The peace initiative was announced last month by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, just days after the United States ambassador to South Africa accused the country of providing arms to Russia for the war. South Africans officials have denied the claim.
South Africa and other countries on the continent have firmly maintained that it was best to take a neutral stance on the war, saying that they could better serve the situation by trying to broker peace. While some analysts have questioned whether this mission could realistically bear fruit, its supporters note that among the leaders who have created peace initiatives, these are the first to meet with the leaders of both Russia and Ukraine.
“The human and negative economic impact and tension arising from the conflict between Ukraine and Russia is a grave situation that affects all of us in an interconnected world,” Mr. Ramaphosa said in a statement released on Thursday.
A statement released by Zambia’s foreign minister on Wednesday said the country saw global peace “as a catalyst for socio-economic development in Africa and the world at large, underscoring its decision to join this initiative.”
The delegation was organized in part by Jean-Yves Ollivier, a wealthy French businessman with a decadeslong history of engaging in peace negotiations for countries across Africa. But Mr. Ollivier has also been viewed with some suspicion for his close ties to the Congolese president, Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Mr. Ollivier told several news organizations that the delegation came about through conversations he had had with heads of state in several African countries with whom he is close. He said that the first order of business in talks with Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Putin would be to discuss potential prisoner swaps and strengthening agreements that allow fertilizer exports from Russia.
In an article in Newsweek, he said the mission could achieve progress “by starting a dialogue on subjects that interest the two countries and will not directly impact, at the beginning, the military situation on the ground.”
“And there will be a stack of dialogues,” he added. “And from this dialogue, we believe that that can lead to other issues and at least to open the prospect for settlement.”
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