The Brazzaville Foundation, an NGO facilitating the trip, stated on Wednesday that members of the African Peace Initiative team will travel to Ukraine and Russia next week to deliver their “road to peace” proposal to the presidents of the two nations.
According to the NGO, the seven-member team will arrive in Kiev on June 16 to meet with President Vladimir Zelensky. The delegation will subsequently be welcomed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg on June 17, according to the announcement.
The peace effort is being led by heads of state from South Africa, Comoros, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Senegal, Zambia, and Egypt.
The African leaders met earlier this week to discuss methods to settle the war in Ukraine, and they agreed to visit both Moscow and Kiev in mid-June. They also tasked their respective foreign ministries with drafting the pieces of a potential peace plan.
According to the Kremlin, President Putin agreed to welcome the group during a phone call with his South African counterpart on Wednesday.
In a statement issued on Thursday, South Africa’s presidency acknowledged that Russian President Vladimir Putin “welcomed the initiative by African Heads of State and expressed his desire to receive the peace mission.”
Last month, the South African government announced that Zelensky had approved of the plan and agreed to host the leaders.
