MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2023) South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said on Tuesday that the program of the African leaders' visit to Ukraine is ready and the delegation is working on finalizing the Russian part of the mission.
"We've got the outlines of a program already with respect to the Ukrainian part of the visit and are finalizing the Russian part," she said.
Pandor added that she would go to Kiev next week as part of the African foreign ministers' delegation, and the seven heads of state would join them later.
Zane Dangor, Director General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, said in May that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as well as the leaders of five other African countries would visit Moscow and Kiev in June as part of a joint peace initiative.
Jean-Yves Ollivier, French businessman and founder of non-governmental organization Brazzaville Foundation, told Sputnik that the main purpose of the African peace mission is to help build a constructive dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. The negotiations will be held in both countries without preconditions, and the mission is the first one that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to receive, he added.
Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Since then, Russian and Ukrainian delegations have held several rounds of peace talks, but the negotiations eventually reached an impasse. In October 2022, Zelenskyy signed a decree stating that Kiev could not hold peace talks as long as Vladimir Putin was president of Russia.
The Kremlin has stated that the conditions for a peaceful transition of the situation in Ukraine are not there, and that Russia is achieving its goals through its military operation. Russia noted that it appreciates the efforts of all countries that have tried to bring the conflict in Ukraine to a peaceful resolution, but so far this has proved impossible.
