South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday urged Ukraine and Russia to “de-escalate” during a visit to Kiev with a delegation of African leaders who had come to try to mediate between that country and Moscow.
He denounced a “deception” by Moscow amid a counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, June 16, rejected an offer of mediation presented to him by a delegation of African presidents. The delegation led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to Kiev had offered to mediate before their trip to Russia. “There has to be a de-escalation on both sides,” said Cyril Ramaphosa. Franceinfo looks back at the highlights of the day.
An African peace mediation
An African delegation including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa arrived in Kiev on Friday morning. Shortly after, the capital region was attacked by a Russian missile attack that set off anti-aircraft sirens and subsequent explosions, injuring at least seven people, according to Ukrainian police. France in the evening condemned the bombings, which “constitute war crimes and must not go unpunished”.
After Kiev, the African mediator has to make her way to Russia, where she will meet Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg on Saturday. It consists of four presidents – Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Macky Sall (Senegal) and Hakainde Hichilema (Zambia), as well as Azali Assoumani (Comoros), who heads the African Union – as well as Congolese, Ugandan and Egyptian representatives. She began her trip to Ukraine with a visit to Boutcha, a suburb of Kiev where the Russian army is accused of massacres of civilians.
Ultimately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the offer of mediation by this delegation of African presidents. “Now that the occupier is on our country, to allow negotiations with Russia is to freeze the war, freeze the pain and suffering,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a joint press conference with African leaders. “It is clear that Russia is once again trying to use its old deception tactics. But Russia will no longer be able to fool the world,” he added. “We will not give him a second chance.”
Vladimir Putin calls Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “disgrace to the Jewish people”
Russian President Vladimir Putin called his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, a “disgrace to the Jewish people”. “I have had many Jewish friends since childhood. And they say that Zelenskyy is not a Jew, but a disgrace to the Jewish people. This is no joke,” he said during the interview. An economic forum in Saint Petersburg (Northwest). ), which AFP was unable to attend due to lack of accreditation, but which was broadcast live on Russian television. “We have every right to consider the goal of denazification of Ukraine as one of the main goals,” he added.
At the same time, Vladimir Putin announced that he had transferred the first nuclear weapons to Belarus, thereby substantiating the deployment announced by Moscow in March. “These are only the first, by the end of the summer, by the end of the year we will complete this work in full,” he said at the economic forum in St. Petersburg.
Ukraine claims to have shot down 12 Russian missiles
Since the beginning of the week, Moscow has repeatedly emphasized that Ukraine’s ongoing offensive on positions held by the Russians had failed. Kiev, in turn, claims to have liberated a handful of towns and a hundred square kilometers, mostly on the southern front. “Ukrainian armed forces continue to conduct both offensive and defensive operations with relative success,” Ganna Maliar, deputy defense minister, said on Friday evening.
Ukraine, for example, claimed to have launched 12 Russian missiles, including six Kinjal hypersonic missiles, in the attack on Kiev that morning. In particular, the Ukrainian soldiers claimed to have shot down a Ka-52 attack helicopter belonging to the Russian Armed Forces. All information cannot be verified by an independent source under the conditions of war. According to military analysts, Ukraine has not yet deployed the bulk of its armed forces in the counteroffensive and is still testing the front lines to determine weaknesses in Russia’s defenses.