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Moscow: 'We'll Keep Talking' Following African Leaders' Meeting


FILE: Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a meeting with a delegation of African leaders and senior officials in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sat. June 17, 2023.
FILE: Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a meeting with a delegation of African leaders and senior officials in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sat. June 17, 2023.

MOSCOW — The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia would continue to talk to a group of African countries seeking to mediate in the conflict with Ukraine, notably at a Russia-Africa summit next month, and that some of their ideas were workable.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that talks with the delegation would continue nonetheless as some of its suggestions could in theory be implemented. He did not say which proposals he was referring to.

This work will continue, including at the Russia-Africa summit to be held in a month in St. Petersburg," Peskov added.

"There are certain themes in the ideas outlined during the talks by members of the delegation which could be implemented, as President Putin said.

Despite Peskov's comments, President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, June 17, gave the seven-country African delegation that had come to see him in St Petersburg a list of reasons why he believed many of their proposals were misguided, pouring cold water on a plan already largely dismissed by Kyiv.

Russia has made it clear that it has no intention of withdrawing from Crimea, which it seized in 2014, or from the Donbas region, where "puppet" independent states were declared and "formalized" in referendums the West discards as shams.

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