African ‘peace mission’ leaders visiting Kyiv greeted by explosions, air raid sirens

Five African leaders seeking to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine arrived in Kyiv on a peace mission on Friday (16 June) as the Ukrainian capital city was rocked by explosions and the blaring of air raid sirens.
Last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had indicated that his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, had agreed to host this peace mission made up of six African leaders. Headed by Ramaphosa, the delegation includes Azali Assoumani, African Union chairperson and President of the Union of Comoros and leaders from Zambia, Senegal, and Egypt’s prime minister, has arrived in Ukraine as part of an African peace mission. At least two explosions rocked Kyiv and air raid sirens also blared as the visit began, the latest in a series of twists as the mission gets underway.
The leaders who are expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday and then travel to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Saturday (17 June), took cover in a bomb shelter. The peace mission could propose a series of “confidence-building measures” during initial efforts at mediation, according to a draft framework document seen by the media. The objective of the mission is “to promote the importance of peace and to encourage the parties to agree to a diplomacy-led process of negotiations,” the document states. Its measures could include a Russian pullback, removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspension of the implementation of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant targeting Putin, followed by a potential ceasefire, accompanied by negotiations between Russia and the West, according to the document.