After the American accusations of being one of the arms suppliers of the Russian army, today the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosaarrived at Kiev where will he meet Voldymyr Zelensky to present the peace plan thought by some presidents of the African continent. A stage preceding the scheduled one a St.Pietroburgowhere he will see instead Vladimir Putin for the same reason. A trip, the one to the Ukrainian capital, which was welcomed with Russian bombing on the city which also caused some victims. “A clear message to the peace mission”, claims the Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba. The head of the Kremlin replies remotely, from the St. Petersburg economic forum: “La Nato is drawn into the war in Ukraine” and confirms that some nuclear weapons Russians have already been delivered to Belarus and the rest will be transferred by the end of the year.
This is the umpteenth attempt by world leaders to start a negotiation between the parties that leads to a halt to the conflict, following the Chinese, Indonesian and Ukrainian proposals. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said that “the president was and remains open to any contact to discuss options for resolving the Ukrainian problem.” While no statement in this regard has yet come from Zelensky. The Hungarian prime minister, on the other hand, has given his opinion on the peace process Viktor Orban which, in an attempt to throw Donald Trump in his run for the 2024 US presidential election, he took up his statements arguing that the tycoon he is the only one capable of ending the battle in progress.
What is certain is that, in addition to the bombings, Moscow’s actions do not seem to be geared towards détente at the moment. Russia has announced that it will hold local elections on September 10 at four annexed Ukrainian regions last year, as well as in many other Russian regions. On the other side of the front, the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, believes that Ukraine is “well positioned to respond to future challenges. Throughout this war wanted by the Kremlin, the Ukrainian forces have shown great skills and professionalism. This is a marathon not a sprint. We are united here and will continue to give the necessary support to Kiev to repel Russian aggression”. Words that remove, if there were ever any doubts, the idea of a ceasefire in the short term.
Meanwhile, on the field the Atomic Agency raises the alarm on the nuclear power plant of Zaporizhzhia describing the situation as “serious”. Rafael Grossiwho visited the plant, said: “We can observe from the side that the situation is serious, the consequences are there and they are real. At the same time, measures are being taken to stabilize the situation“.
From the side of arms supplieson the other hand, the flow of supplies from the pro-Kiev bloc does not stop. United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands e Denmark they announced that they will work together to supply “high-priority air defense equipment to Ukraine”. The initiative “will provide hundreds of air defense missiles short- and medium-range and associated systems necessary to protect Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure and further ensure the success of counter-offensive operations in the coming months,” reads a joint statement published by Downing Street which underlines how “the delivery of the equipment has already begun and should be completed within several weeks”.