peace deal, but he continued to lay the blame at the feet of ukraine, essentially saying it s their fault that the fighting is ongoing, that the war even started, that there isn t peace now, that there aren t peace negotiations. he said there can t be a cease-fire right now when we re being attacked. he claimed that he never rejected a peace plan, but he went on to compliment the african peace plan as being a good basis for conversations going forward. so putin continues to play the victim here, continues to not take any blame, to deflect and lean on old arguments that it was essentially ukraine leaning toward the west that forced russia into invading. so this summit with african leaders in st. petersburg over the last few days has been interesting in terms of highlighting the strains that russia is feeling from the international community, and the pressure that it is under including from some of its closest allies here specifically from africa. paula? alex, what can you tell us