At least two explosions rocked Kyiv on Friday after airstrikes were launched, even as several African leaders began a peacekeeping mission in the Ukrainian capital, Reuters reported.

The Air Force of Ukraine said it had shot down “six (hypersonic) Kinjal missiles, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones.”

The African delegation, which includes the leaders of South Africa, Senegal, Comoros and Egypt, is due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Friday before holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that “Putin is ‘building confidence’ by launching the largest missile strike on Kyiv in recent weeks, right in the middle of a visit by African leaders to our capital. Russian missiles are a message to Africa: Russia wants more war, not peace.”

Adviser to the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak also noted that “Putin wants to show that he is ready to disregard the security of foreign leaders, in fact he does not care, because he feels complete impunity. And anyone can get to the place of the leaders of African countries. We remember that rockets also flew when US President Joe Biden and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrived in Ukraine.”

The African leaders of the peacekeeping mission were taken to a bomb shelter

A Reuters witness in central Kyiv said he heard two explosions. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko also reported on the explosions in central Podil and warned that new rockets are coming at the capital.

Another Reuters correspondent in the capital saw the smoke trail of two rockets in the air. It is not known whether these missiles were launched by Russian or Ukrainian air defense.

A Reuters camera crew saw the African leaders arrive in Kyiv in a motorcade and enter the hotel to use its bomb shelter.

The leaders began their visit with a trip to Buchi, near Kyiv, which is one of several places where Ukraine says Russian forces have committed mass atrocities since their full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Africans came up with a peace plan that involves the withdrawal of Russian troops

The African peacekeeping mission, which includes South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Senegalese President Macky Sall, may offer a number of “confidence-building measures” during initial mediation efforts, according to a draft framework document seen by Reuters.

The document states that the purpose of the mission is to “promote the importance of peace and encourage the parties to accept the negotiation process under diplomatic guidance.”

Those measures could include the withdrawal of Russian troops, the removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, the suspension of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Putin and the easing of sanctions, the document said.

A cease-fire agreement can and should be followed by negotiations between Russia and the West, the document says.

The peacekeeping mission comes shortly after the start of a Ukrainian counter-offensive that has pushed Russian forces back in some areas, although Kyiv has recaptured only a small part of the territory that Russian forces occupied in Ukraine.

Kyiv says that its own peace initiative, which involves the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, should be the basis of any solution to the war.