As Ukraine’s counteroffensive gathers steam, peace mediators from a continent that counts on grain and fertilizer imports from Kyiv and Moscow: the presidents of South Africa, Senegal, Zambia and the Comoros leading a delegation to the Ukrainian capital before traveling on to Saint Petersburg Saturday to meet Vladimir Putin. After their tour of the scene of last year’s war crimes when the Russians occupied the northern suburb of Bucha, air raid sirens sounded in the capital. The South African president’s security detail was held up in Warsaw amid a feud that was nominally about weapons permits. His entourage stuck on the tarmac for 24 hours. South Africa’s been accused of supplying weapons to Russia while Poland’s one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies.
