War & peace

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that talks about resolving the conflict with Russia could not start with a mere cessation of hostilities. ‘If anyone thinks they should freeze the conflict and then see how to solve it, they don’t understand it,’ he said. More than 100 rounds of consultation and attempts at a ceasefire since Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 only led to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he said. A delegation of African heads of state is expected to visit Ukraine and Russia in the next few days hoping to persuade them to cease hostilities. Such a proposal means that Russian troops would remain on Ukrainian soil even as peace talks start. Ukraine previously said Russian forces should withdraw before such negotiations could start, while Moscow wants Kyiv to recognise Russian sovereignty over Crimea as precondition for negotiations. President Macky Sall of Senegal, last year’s African Union chairman, whose country was not present at the latest U.N. vote condemning Russia in February this year, leads the initiative. The current African Union chairman, Comoros Islands President Othman Ghazali, was recently added to the delegation.