President Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s demand for preconditions to be met before Kiev engages in peace talks with Moscow is understandable but also \u201cperhaps unreasonable,\u201d according to the president of Comoros, Azali Assoumani, who currently chairs the African Union (AU). He added that Zelensky had acknowledged African leaders\u2019 belief that his country\u2019s conflict with Russia cannot be resolved through military means, during a meeting last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assoumani was part of a peace mission of senior African leaders and officials, including the presidents of South Africa, Senegal, and Zambia, who visited St. Petersburg and Kiev in mid-June for talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discussing Zelensky\u2019s attitude toward the African peace initiative in an interview with RIA Novosti on Thursday, Assoumani noted the Ukrainian leader\u2019s stance \u201cthat he demands for preconditions to be met before starting negotiations seems to be already known everywhere.\u201d \u201cBut we haven\u2019t yet received any convincing confirmation of his interest [in engaging in peace talks],\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, Zelensky reiterated that talks with Moscow could only begin after Russian forces withdraw from all Ukrainian territory within the country\u2019s 1991 borders, including Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia has rejected the demands as unrealistic, arguing that they are a sign of Kiev\u2019s unwillingness to settle the conflict through diplomatic means. According to Moscow, this leaves it with no choice other than to continue working toward achieving its goals through military means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assoumani said that African leaders had recommended to Zelensky that he \u201csits down [at the negotiating table] and discusses\u201d a way out of the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ukrainian president\u2019s demands for preconditions to be met first is \u201cunderstandable, but perhaps unreasonable,\u201d he added. \u201cWe start discussions to find a solution. But if we have decisions already before negotiations, what\u2019s the point of any discussions at all?\u201d the AU chief asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Assoumani pointed out that during their meeting in Kiev, Zelensky \u201ctook note very sincerely\u2026 that it\u2019s impossible to achieve results with the use of weapons.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The African peace initiative consists of ten points, including calls for security guarantees and for the free movement of grain through the Black Sea, as well as the release of prisoners and the swift start of peace negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assoumani gave the interview on the sidelines of the two-day Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum, which kicked off in St. Petersburg on Thursday. The high-profile event hosted by Putin is being attended by delegations from 49 African nations, 17 of which are being led by their respective heads of state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Vladimir Zelensky’s demand for preconditions to be met before Kiev engages in peace talks with Moscow is understandable but also “perhaps unreasonable,” according to the president of Comoros, Azali… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[42],"class_list":["post-2643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"authors":[{"term_id":42,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"radio-habana-cuba","display_name":"Radio Habana Cuba","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2645,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions\/2645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2643"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}