Zelensky rules out talks with Russia as he meets African leaders

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday ruled out talks with Russia as he met with a delegation of African leaders.

"I clearly said several times at our meeting that to allow any negotiations with Russia now that the occupier is on our land is to freeze the war, to freeze pain and suffering," Zelensky told reporters after meeting several leaders including South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa.

The delegation is to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.

They arrived in Kyiv on a mission to broker peace, first visiting the nearby town of Bucha, where Russian troops have been accused of massacring civilians.

Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine after they arrived on Friday morning and the air force said it had downed 12 Russian missiles.

Zelensky said that Russia's missile strike on Kyiv as the African delegation visited meant that Putin did not control Russia's army or that he was "irrational", adding he wanted to "fully destroy the state of Ukraine."

Zelensky accused Russia of managing to freeze the Ukraine conflict after annexing the peninsula of Crimea in 2014, adding that Kyiv would not allow Moscow to do this again.




AFP