South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday called on Ukraine and Russia to “de-escalate” during a visit to Kiev with a delegation of African leaders who came to try to mediate between this country and Moscow.
He denounces a “deception” of Moscow in full counter-offensive of the Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected, on Friday June 16, the offer of mediation presented to him by a delegation of African presidents. The delegation led to kyiv by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had offered to mediate before going to Russia. “There must be a de-escalation on both sides”, said Cyril Ramaphosa. Franceinfo looks back on the highlights of the day.
An African mediation for peace
An African delegation, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, arrived Friday morning in kyiv. Shortly after, the capital region was targeted by a Russian missile attack which triggered anti-aircraft sirens followed by explosions, and injured at least seven people according to Ukrainian police. France condemned in the evening the bombardments which “constitute war crimes and cannot go unpunished”.
After kyiv, the African mediation must head for Russia, where it must meet Vladimir Putin on Saturday in Saint Petersburg. It includes four presidents – Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Macky Sall (Senegal) and Hakainde Hichilema (Zambia), as well as Azali Assoumani (Comoros), who heads the African Union – and Congolese, Ugandan and Egyptian representatives. She had started her stage in Ukraine with a visit to Boutcha, this suburb of kyiv where the Russian army is accused of having massacred civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ultimately rejected the offer of mediation presented to him by this delegation of African presidents. “Allowing negotiation with Russia now, when the occupier is on our land, means freezing war, freezing pain and suffering”decided Volodymyr Zelensky during a joint press conference with African leaders. “It is clear that Russia is trying to use its old deception tactics again. But Russia will no longer succeed in deceiving the world,” he added. “We are not going to give him a second chance.”
Vladimir Putin calls Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘shame on the Jewish people’
Russian President Vladimir Putin called his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, of Jewish faith, a “Shame on the Jewish people”. “I have many Jewish friends since childhood. And they say that Zelensky is not Jewish, but a disgrace to the Jewish people. This is not a joke,” he said during an economic forum in Saint Petersburg (north-west), which AFP could not attend for lack of accreditation, but which was broadcast live on Russian television . “We have every right to consider the objective of denazification of Ukraine as one of the key objectives”he added.
At the same time, Vladimir Putin announced that he had transferred the first nuclear weapons to Belarus, concretizing the deployment announced in March by Moscow. “These are only the first, by the end of the summer, the end of the year, we will completely, completely complete this work”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 been constantly hammering home that Ukraine’s ongoing offensive on the positions occupied by the Russians is a failure. kyiv, for its part, claims to have liberated a handful of localities and a hundred square kilometers, mainly on the southern front. “Ukrainian forces continue to conduct both offensive and defensive operations with relative success,” said Friday evening Ganna Maliar, Deputy Minister of Defense.
Thus, Ukraine claimed to have shot down 12 Russian missiles, including six hypersonic Kinjal during the attack targeting kyiv in the morning. The Ukrainian soldiers notably claimed to have shot down a Ka-52 combat helicopter of the Russian forces. All information impossible to verify from an independent source under the conditions of the war. According to military analysts, Ukraine has not yet launched the bulk of its forces in its counter-offensive, and is still currently testing the front to determine the weak points of the Russian defense.