Vladimir Putin welcomes the presidents of six African countries to St. Petersburg (the most important is the South African Cyril Ramaphosa , who will host a BRICS summit next August) and the Egyptian prime minister who presented a peace initiative for Ukraine. The talks are held at the Konstantinovsky Palace, one of the residences of the Romanov Tsars.
Russia, Putin said, accepting the solicitations of the Africans, " is open to dialogue with anyone who asks for peace ".
Then he attacked Zelensky, stating that Ukraine "had already signed a ceasefire agreement at the end of March 2022 in Istanbul, but after the withdrawal of our troops it threw it into the dustbin of history" . Quotation of a famous expression by Trotsky.
Yesterday African leaders also presented their peace plan in Kiev, which rejected it : "The delegation was only interested in suspending Putin's arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court ," said Mykhailo Podolyak , adviser to the presidential office of Ukraine.
«It was one of the points of the peace proposal, indicated as a first step to build trust and then move on to the subsequent points, which seem to me of little interest. They were only interested in suspending the arrest warrant. They depend on Russia, for mineral fertilizers, additional supplies of raw materials, money supplies and even armed militias which Russia sometimes exports to African countries ».
For Podolyak the only real plan to end the war "is the 10-point peace plan presented by Ukraine which provides for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from our territory, the establishment of a tribunal for Russian war crimes , the release of all prisoners and forcibly displaced persons '.
(Unioneonline/L)
