President Donald Trump spoke with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday about the peace process between Russia and Ukraine, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited South Africa.
Ramaphosa posted on X:
I had an opportunity to speak to President Donald Trump yesterday to discuss the peace process in Ukraine.
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) April 24, 2025
We both agreed that the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible to prevent further death and destruction.
President Trump and I also agreed to meet soon to…
The direct conversation between the two leaders is a sudden, positive development in a relationship that had been deteriorating in recent weeks. The U.S. cut off aid to South Africa over its expropriation legislation and its treatment of the Afrikaner minority, as well as its pro-Iran, pro-China, anti-Israel foreign policy. The Trump administration also expelled South Africa’s ambassador, who called Trump a white supremacist.
South Africa took a pro-Kremlin stance when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, partly as the result of old ties between South Africa’s ruling party and the Soviet Union. Ramaphosa invited Zelensky to South Africa earlier this year as a way to realign his country’s stance toward peace efforts that are being led by Trump.
Zelensky landed on Thursday but decided to cut his trip short over renewed Russian missile attacks on Ukraine.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
