South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Thursday he had spoken to President Donald Trump about the conflict in Ukraine and they planned to meet “soon”.
Ramaphosa made the statement as he hosted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on a working visit to South Africa which was cut short after deadly Russian attacks on Kyiv overnight.
Zelensky said on social media he would “return to Ukraine immediately” after meeting Ramaphosa, following overnight attacks that killed at least nine people in the Ukrainian capital.
“I spoke to President Donald Trump to discuss the peace process in Ukraine,” the South African leader said.
The leaders had “agreed that the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible to stop further unnecessary deaths,” he said on social media.
“We both agreed to meet soon to address various matters regarding US-South Africa relations.”
Ties between Pretoria and Washington took a nosedive after Trump came to power this year.
He has criticised various South African domestic and international policies, including Pretoria’s case at the International Court of Justice on Israel’s war in Gaza.
The tensions culminated in the expulsion of Pretoria’s ambassador last month.
Trump has also cut financial aid over what he alleged was an anti-white land policy and offered refugee settlement to the white Afrikaner minority that he has claimed is being persecuted.
In his social media post, Ramaphosa said he and Trump had agreed on “the need to foster good relations between our two countries.”
South African shift
Zelensky’s visit to South Africa — his first to the continent — underscores a shift in Pretoria’s stance on Russia’s invasion, which it had initially refused to condemn.
It takes place just weeks after South Africa joined for the first time a UN General Assembly resolution criticising Russia for “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine”.
Pretoria’s close ties with the Kremlin — forged by its support in the struggle against the previous apartheid regime — has raised eyebrows at home and abroad, with attempts to pressure it to drop a non-aligned stance.
Ramaphosa invited the Ukrainian leader in February as South Africa was coming under attack from Trump, who had also taken aim at Zelensky and moved to negotiate an end to the war without involving Ukraine or its European allies.
Analysts said that Zelensky would be hoping for an invitation to the G20 summit of leading economies taking place in November in South Africa, which holds this year’s presidency of the group.
In one of his latest salvos against South Africa, Trump suggested earlier this month he would skip the summit and repeated unfounded claims of alleged anti-white crimes in South Africa.
“Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!” he said in a social media post.
Ramaphosa’s spokesman said at the time: “We were no longer expecting him to attend in any case.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to attend a G20 foreign ministers meeting in South Africa in February, saying it had an “anti-American” agenda.
Mediation
South Africa appears to believe it can work with both sides in the Ukraine conflict and facilitate an inclusive peace process, perhaps drawing on its own relatively smooth transition out of white-minority rule in 1994 after decades of armed struggle.
Even while welcoming Zelensky to South Africa, Ramaphosa has maintained warm ties with Russia, which he said in October was an “ally and precious friend”.
He and President Vladimir Putin spoke Monday to “affirm the strong bilateral relations”, according to a South African government statement.
“South Africa will continue engaging all interested and affected parties, including the government of Ukraine on finding a path to peace,” it said.
