Russian President Putin meets African leaders to discuss Ukraine peace plan
The HinduRussian President Vladimir Putin on June 17 met with a group of leaders of African countries who traveled to Russia on a self-styled “peace mission” the day after they went to Ukraine, but the meeting ended with no visible progress. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the three-hour meeting that the Africans' peace plan consisted of 10 elements, but “was not formulated on paper.” “The peace initiative proposed by African countries is very difficult to implement, difficult to compare positions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Asked if he could order the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Mr. Putin said that there was no need for that but noted that Moscow could use its nuclear arsenals in case of a “threat to the Russian Statehood.” “In that case, we will certainly use all the means that the Russian state has. “This conflict is affecting Africa negatively,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a news conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and four other African leaders after their closed-door talks on Friday.