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President Museveni is among the six African heads of state to travel to Russia and Ukraine to help find a resolution to the devastating conflict between the two countries, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday 16^th May 2023.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have “agreed to receive the mission and the African heads of state, in both Moscow and Kyiv,” Ramaphosa said.

Putin and Zelensky over the weekend, where he presented an initiative drawn up by Zambia, Senegal, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Egypt and South Africa.

The leaders of Zambia, Senegal, Congo, Uganda and Egypt would make up the delegation along with Ramaphosa, he said in a statement. Putin and Zelenskyy gave him the go-ahead to “commence the preparations,” the South African leader said.

Four of those six African countries South Africa, Congo, Senegal and Uganda abstained from a U.N. vote last year on condemning Russia’s invasion. Zambia and Egypt voted in favour of the motion.

“I agreed with both President Putin and President Zelensky to commence with preparations for engagements with the African heads of state,” Ramaphosa said.

“We’re hoping we will have intensive discussions,” he said, speaking at a press conference in Cape Town during a state visit by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the African Union (AU) have been briefed on the initiative and welcomed it, Ramaphosa added.

Ramaphosa did not give a specific timeline for the visit or other details, saying only that the conflict had been “devastating” and Africa “is also suffering a great deal” from it.

African countries have been badly hit by rising prices of grain and by the impact to world trade.

“Whether that will succeed or not is going to depend on the discussions that will be held,” Ramaphosa said.

The South African leader previously said his country was neutral in the Russian-Ukrainian war.  South Africa, a member of the International Criminal Court, has been reticent on its stance toward the ICC’s warrant to arrest Putin on war crimes charges.

Government sources cited by South African media said this month that they would have “no choice” but to arrest Putin if he attended an upcoming summit there in August. 

The announcement came a day after Ramaphosa said South Africa had been under “extraordinary pressure” to pick sides in the conflict, following accusations from the United States that Pretoria supplied weapons to Moscow a move that would break with its professed neutrality.