African leaders encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to go forward with their plan to resolve the Ukraine crisis and to renew a critical arrangement for Africa on the safe wartime shipment of Ukrainian food, which Moscow ripped up last week.
While they were not openly critical of Russia, their contributions on the second day of a meeting were more coordinated and strong than those made by African countries up to this point.
They served as reminders of the intensity of African worry about the war’s implications, particularly rising food costs.
“This war must come to an end, and it can only be resolved through justice and reason,” African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat told Putin and other African leaders in St. Petersburg.
“The interruptions in energy and grain supplies must be stopped immediately.” The grain arrangement must be expanded for the benefit of all peoples across the world, particularly Africans.”
According to sources, the African plan proposes a variety of possible moves to defuse the situation, including a Russian army withdrawal, the removal of Russian tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, the suspension of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Putin, and sanctions relief.
When African leaders submitted it to Putin last month, he gave it a cold greeting. In public statements on Friday, he reiterated in similar words that the war was caused by Ukraine and the West, not Russia.
Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso stated the effort “deserves close attention,” and he called for peace “immediately.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told Putin, “We feel that we have a right to call for peace; the ongoing conflict also negatively affects us.”
The barrage of calls forced Putin to constantly explain Russia’s position, culminating in an eight-minute address, later released in video form by the Kremlin, at the start of nighttime meetings with the African leaders supporting the peace proposal.
He accused the West of supporting a “coup” in Kyiv in 2014, when a wave of street protests drove Ukraine’s pro-Russian president to leave, as well as of attempting to lure Ukraine into the US-led NATO military alliance and undermining Russian statehood.
He said that Kiev was refusing to talk under a decree issued shortly after he claimed last September to have seized four Ukrainian areas partially controlled by Russia, adding that “the ball is entirely in their court.”
‘New Consciousnesses’
Russia has always stated that it is willing to have discussions but that they must take into account the “new realities” on the ground.
According to AU Chair Azali Assoumani, Putin has demonstrated his willingness to speak, and “now we have to convince the other side.”
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rejected the concept of a ceasefire now, which would give Russia control of roughly a fifth of his nation and allow its soldiers to recover after 17 months of conflict.
At the conference, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pressed Russia to restore the Black Sea grain pact, which had provided Ukraine with a “safe corridor” to transport grain from its seaports despite the crisis until Moscow declined to renew it last week.
Egypt is a major importer of grain via the Black Sea route, and Sisi told the summit that it was “essential to reach agreement” on restarting the contract.
Putin replied, as he has in the past, by claiming that rising global food prices are the result of Western policy failures that predate the Ukraine war.
He has stated repeatedly that Russia left the pact because it was not delivering food to the poorest nations and the West was not upholding its end of the bargain.
Russia’s retreat and shelling of Ukrainian ports and grain warehouses has sparked charges from Ukraine and the West that it is using food as a weapon of war and has caused the world wheat price to rise by about 9%.
According to the Ukrainian Grain Association, 4 million metric tonnes of Ukrainian grain have been taken since Russia started its full-scale invasion in February of last year.
On Thursday, Putin pledged to provide up to 300,000 metric tonnes of free Russian grain—a “handful of donations,” according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres—to six of the summit’s participants.
According to Assoumani, this may not be enough, and a cease-fire is required.
Putin hoped that the meeting would reenergize Russia’s ties with Africa and enlist its cooperation in opposing what he calls US imperialism and Western neocolonialism.
Many of the leaders commended Moscow’s assistance for their nations’ liberation movements in the twentieth century, and the final statement vowed Russia would assist them in seeking restitution for the harm done by colonial control.
Mali and the Central African Republic presidents, whose countries have depended significantly on Russia’s Wagner mercenary force, both expressed appreciation to Putin.
President Faustin Archange Touadera thanked Russia for helping the Central African Republic save its democracy and avoid civil conflict, praising Russia for “helping us to oppose foreign hegemony.”
