From the left: Egypt's Prime Minister Mustafa Madbuly, Senegal's President Macky Sall, President of the Union of Comoros Azali Assoumani, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema walk to attend a joint press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 16 amid Russian attacks on the city.VALENTYN OGIRENKO/Reuters
For 26 hours last week, a South African airplane sat stranded on the tarmac of a Warsaw airport, filled with 120 bodyguards and 12 crates of weapons that were intended to protect President Cyril Ramaphosa during an African peace mission to Ukraine and Russia.
Mired in bureaucratic bungling and international spats, the jet finally flew back to South Africa three days later without ever reaching its intended destinations, while journalists aboard the plane recorded the fiasco in excruciating detail. Even after the Warsaw humiliation and their failure to reach the Kyiv train, the plane’s crew were unable to get airspace clearances to fly to Russia.
The stranded plane was just the most visible sign of the challenges to a peace mission that had always faced an uphill struggle. The African leaders had a rare diplomatic opportunity – they are one of the few delegations that managed to meet the presidents of both Ukraine and Russia within a 24-hour period – but they obtained no significant concessions from either side, demonstrating the difficulty of trying to mediate in the brutal war between the two countries.
The peace mission was led by four presidents – from South Africa, Zambia and Senegal, along with Comoros, whose leader chairs the African Union – and senior officials from three other countries: Uganda, Egypt and the Republic of Congo. Despite a variety of voting stances on the Ukraine issue at the United Nations, all seven African countries claimed to be non-aligned and eager to negotiate peace.
The stranded airplane in Warsaw was the first sign of trouble. Poland, a close ally of Ukraine, was suspicious of the unauthorized weapons and unidentified security staff on board. It barred the weapons from leaving the plane. A standoff ensued. A senior South African official accused the Polish officials of racism and sabotage, while the Polish government retorted that the plane contained dangerous and undeclared material.
Mr. Ramaphosa, whose own plane had arrived in Poland earlier, was able to board the overnight train to Kyiv with the other African leaders, but further problems awaited them there. Russia fired a dozen missiles at Kyiv, and the African leaders were hustled into a hotel basement for safety. When the missiles were knocked down by Ukrainian air defence systems, Mr. Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, heaped scorn on the incident, telling South African media that the “so-called” explosions were merely an “amusing” bit of disinformation.
His comments infuriated many Ukrainians, who pointed to the debris from the downed missiles that had injured four people in Kyiv and damaged many homes.
“Biggest liar in the world,” said a headline in the Kyiv Post on the weekend, reporting the local reaction to Mr. Magwenya’s comments.
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The incident added to the widespread perception that South Africa is favouring Russia in the war. Its ruling party, the African National Congress, has openly adopted Moscow’s rhetoric on the war, blaming NATO and the West for the conflict. South Africa hosted Russian warships in a naval exercise in February, and South African weapons were allegedly loaded onto a Russian cargo ship in a secret nighttime operation last December, according to a U.S. diplomat.
During the peace mission on Friday and Saturday, the body language of the leaders told a similar story of their connections. Russian President Vladimir Putin embraced Mr. Ramaphosa in a warm hug, beaming happily at him. A day earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had maintained a cool distance from Mr. Ramaphosa during their terse handshake.
At a news conference after their Kyiv meeting, Mr. Ramaphosa made further missteps. As part of a 10-point peace plan, he called for both sides in the war to “de-escalate” their activities – a complete non-starter for the Ukrainians, who have just launched a long-planned counteroffensive against the occupying Russian forces. And he tried to use the anti-apartheid struggle to bolster his case, arguing that liberation hero Nelson Mandela had eventually accepted negotiations as the route to peace – an argument that Mr. Zelensky swiftly rejected, adding that Mr. Mandela and his comrades had fought an armed resistance against their oppressors for decades.
One of Mr. Zelensky’s top aides, Mykhailo Podolyak, added to the Ukrainian doubts about the peace mission when he said on Saturday that the African leaders were mainly interested in persuading Ukraine to help lift the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Mr. Putin. The ICC issued the order earlier this year, accusing the Russian President of war crimes for deporting Ukrainian children to his country.
When the African leaders arrived in St. Petersburg for the Russian leg of their mission, meanwhile, Mr. Putin interrupted their opening statements and rejected their support for Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.
Mr. Ramaphosa refused to be discouraged. In a statement on Monday, he said he remained optimistic because the Ukrainian and Russian leaders had agreed to “further engagements” with their African counterparts.
“This initiative has been historic in that it is the first time African leaders have embarked on a peace mission beyond the shores of the continent,” he said.
South Africa’s political pundits, however, were unimpressed by the trip. Many asked why Mr. Ramaphosa had tried to fly to Ukraine and Russia with an entire plane filled with 120 security staff. John Steenhuisen, leader of the biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said the mission was “a shambolic political stunt.”