Faith Nyasuguta
As African heads of state prepare an attempt to broker peace between Kyiv and Moscow, Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has reminded the world what it will take for his nation to end the war.
“Friends and colleagues, whatever your ideas about a peace plan are, please know three things. First, any peace initiative should respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and it should not imply or even in between the lines of any cessation of Ukrainian territory to Russia.
“Second, every peace plan should not lead to freezing of the conflict because those who think the urgent task is to freeze the conflict and see how to fix it afterwards, they are wrong. They do not understand the logic of this war,” said Kuleba.
Speaking during a virtual media briefing for African journalists, Kuleba disclosed that Ukraine negotiated with Russia between 2014 and 2022 and there were 180 rounds of consultations as well as endless attempts at a ceasefire. However, Russia launched a large-scale invasion.
“The third rule is if your peace initiative respects these two principles, we will sit down and see how we can match your ideas with the peace formula proposed by President [Volodymyr] Zelensky of Ukraine.”
“This does not only apply to Africa but to everyone,” he said.
Currently, the presidents of Zambia, Senegal, Congo, Uganda, Egypt and South Africa are preparing a “road to peace” journey to Ukraine and Russia in an effort to bring an end to the war which commenced in February 2022.
During a state visit by Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo De Sousa at the Union Buildings, international relations and co-operation minister Naledi Pandor said preparations were under way for several African foreign ministers to travel to Kyiv next week to prepare for negotiations with Zelensky and later with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“We are working on logistics. There is this train journey that has to be undertaken from Poland to Kyiv and that journey, we have to ensure, is comfortable and secure for the African heads of state.”
Kuleba emphasized that Ukraine has a comprehensive vision on how the war should end.
“It is called Ukraine’s peace formula by President Zelensky. On Ukrainian soil, it is where the Ukrainians suffered the most and therefore we think it is fair that the Ukrainian peace formula be at the core of the peace effort.
“We call on all African nations to join the implementation of the peace formula.”
Questioned on whether he thought the mission was authentic, Kubela said: “I have not heard of any African peace bloc as such or document that has items or steps. What I heard is a group of African leaders want to come to Kyiv and Moscow — and I don’t know where Putin, the aggressor, is going to host them. They want to talk.”
“If you are talking about this mission, as a peace plan, I am aware of it and we are looking forward to hosting these presidents in Kyiv and we see value in talking with them.”
“Even if the mission initiatives come from Asian, Latin American, African, European or North American nations, we don’t care about the name, we are here about principles, and these are the three principles.
“We are looking forward to hosting the presidents, we will talk with them, they are welcome to come and we will see what the outcome of these conversations will be. If we see through their showed actions and possible proposals that they act in good faith, of course we will engage actively with them.”
“But as of now, we don’t have any prejudices as to the engagement or co-operation with them.”
On how other nations can support Ukraine, he noted that they can support the peace formula, vote for the resolution in the UN General Assembly, provide or sell weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, especially after the floods following the dam wall collapse in Nova Kakhovka.
“What we don’t accept is when countries do nothing, when they sit and observe suffering and death from a distance. This is discouraging, but when we see a country has certain limitations or security constraints, but they are still trying to do something, we understand and appreciate it.”
The support of every country matters, irrespective of its size or geographic location, he said.
“The more countries [that] join the peace formula proposed by Ukraine, the more obvious it will be for Russia that they have to end this war, but for as [long] they believe they have countries supporting them and they can count on these countries, the longer they will continue with the war.”
“There are few countries who support Russia in this war and I think, in my opinion, no-one likes that most countries do not support what Russia is doing, but because Russia has leverage on these countries, they are not supporting Ukraine.”
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