The war in Ukraine must end, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has told Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin.
Mr Ramaphosa’s reflections came as he met Mr Putin in St Petersburg on Saturday as part of a peace charge with six other African countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the delegation on Friday that he’d not enter addresses with Russia while they enthralled Ukrainian land.
Mr Putin told the African leaders Ukraine had always refused addresses.
At the meeting in St Petersburg, Mr Ramaphosa also called for both parties to return their captures of war, and said children removed by Russia should be returned home.
Mr Putin has been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the forced junking of hundreds of Ukrainian children from their families during Russia’s occupation of Ukraine.
As the African delegation called for the return of children to their families, Mr Putin intruded their speech and claimed Russia was guarding them.
” Children are sacred. We moved them out of the conflict zone, saving their lives and health”, he said. The UN said they’ve substantiation of the illegal transfer of hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Mr Ramaphosa also advised Mr Putin of the impacts of the war on Africa, and said it should be settled by tactfulness.
” The war can not go on ever. All wars have to be settled and come to an end at some stage,” he said.” And we’re then to communicate a veritably clear communication that we’d like this war to be ended.”
The war has oppressively confined the import of grain from Ukraine and fertiliser from Russia, which has affected African countries in particular and boosted global food instability.
But Mr Putin criticized the West for the grain extremity- not the war in Ukraine as he said only 3 of the grain exports permitted under aUN-sponsored deal to insure its safe passage through the Black Sea had gone to the world’s poorest countries.
Russia has constantly complained that Western warrants are confining its own agrarian exports. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there were” no grounds for extending” the grain deal, because” so far what we were promised has not been done”.
Mr Putin praised what he described as Africa’s balanced position on the war, which Russia continues to call a” special military operation”.
The African delegation, made up of representatives from South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, Congo- Brazzaville, Comoros, Zambia, and Uganda has been specifically designed for breadth and balance, with members from different corridor of Africa with different views on the conflict.
South Africa and Uganda are seen as leaning towards Russia, while Zambia and Comoros are closer to the West. Egypt, Senegal and Congo- Brazzaville have remained largely neutral.
African countries have primarily seen the conflict a battle between Russia and the West.
The delegation also met with Ukrainian leaders on Friday, where Mr Ramaphosa advised the war in Europe was affecting between1.2 and1.3 billion people in Africa.
After the leaders landed, air raid enchantresses sounded across Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, which Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said demonstrated that Mr Putin wanted” further war”.
During their meeting, Mr Zelensky told the delegation that” an important result of your charge” would be to mediate to bring about the release political captures held by Russia.
The meeting comes amid heightened pressures between both Russia and Ukraine, as Ukraine launches its counterattack near the region of Bakhmut.
Russia has claimed the counterattack has failed, but Kyiv said it has reacquired about 100 sq km of home on its southern front.
