Zelensky’s visit to South Africa attracts global interest, especially Trump and Putin

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Ukraine President and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa during an official visit to South Africa at the Union Buildings on April 24, 2025 in Pretoria, South Africa. The visits provides South Africa and Ukraine with an opportunity to discuss bilateral relations, expand bilateral cooperation in the areas of Trade, Agriculture and Education and also explore areas of cooperation with the objective to support efforts to bring lasting peace. (Photo by Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu)

By Peter Fabricius

24 Apr 2025

Both Trump and Putin discussed the meeting in phone calls to Ramaphosa. The visit appears to have boosted South Africa’s diplomatic stature at a time when its relations with the US have hit rock bottom.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to South Africa on Thursday attracted global interest, with both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin calling President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss the meaning and implications of the visit.

It was also a visit of drama as Zelensky cut it short to return hurriedly to his home country after a massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, where many were injured and several killed.

ramaphosa zelensky President Cyril Ramaphosa (right) and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy address the media at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 24 April 2025 (Photo: Kopano Tlape / GCIS)

The visit appears to have boosted South Africa’s diplomatic stature at a time when its relations with the US have hit rock bottom.

Zelensky left after meeting Ramaphosa and then holding a joint press conference, leaving Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha to conduct the rest of the meetings, mainly with civil society.

Ramaphosa significantly supported Zelensky’s call for an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine’s war with Russia as the best next step towards a permanent peace. Ramaphosa said that this had been the approach to the negotiations in the early 1990s to end South Africa’s liberation war and embark on negotiations for a new dispensation.

Ramaphosa, Zelensky and their ministers also advanced material relations between their countries, including discussing plans for boosting mutual trade in agriculture and the possibility of SA buying Ukraine’s drone technology, which has advanced rapidly since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

Trump call

But it was the outside interest in the meeting – the first by a Ukrainian head of state to South Africa – that was most striking. On Wednesday, Trump called Ramaphosa to discuss the Ukraine peace process.

“We both agreed that the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible to prevent further death and destruction,” Ramaphosa said in a post on X.

He said that he and Trump had agreed to meet soon to discuss the war “and various matters regarding relations between South Africa and the United States”. Relations are extremely poor because of Trump’s accusations that Pretoria is persecuting the white Afrikaner minority and also targeting Israel by charging it with genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Ramaphosa denied at the press conference that Trump had called him to put pressure on Zelensky to accept the US peace proposal, which Zelensky rejected because it requires Ukraine to permanently abandon Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and also give up Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato.

At the press conference, Zelensky said he was ready to consider other aspects of the US peace plan, but could not accept any proposals that violated Ukraine’s constitution, which abandoning Crimea and the ambition to join Nato would do. Trump retorted by accusing Zelensky of wanting to extend the war indefinitely.

Putin

Meanwhile, on Monday, Putin also spoke to Ramaphosa on the eve of Zelensky’s visit in what looked like a pre-emptive bid to present his case before the Ukrainian leader did.

“In view of the willingness to contribute in the search for ways to peacefully resolve the Ukraine crisis displayed by the South African side, Vladimir Putin outlined Russia’s principled stance regarding the necessity to eliminate the root causes behind the conflict and ensure Russia’s security interests are respected,” a Kremlin statement said.

This familiar statement from Putin almost certainly referred at least to his demand that Ukraine should not join Nato.

Ramaphosa and Zelensky were asked at the press conference if they believed that Putin had deliberately ordered the massive attack on Ukraine that day to register his displeasure with Zelensky’s visit to South Africa.

Zelensky said he did not think so, saying that Russia fired missiles and drones at Ukraine every day. However, he said he believed that Putin resented Ukraine improving its relations with South Africa and other African countries, as isolating Ukraine internationally made his country an easier target.

Ramaphosa agreed that he did not think the attacks had anything to do with South Africa.

Daily Maverick asked Sybiha at a later press briefing if he thought that the events of the week – Zelensky’s visit, Putin and Trump’s calls and the Russian attacks on Ukraine – were related.

He smiled and said, “There’s no such thing as coincidence in diplomacy. This shows the importance of South Africa.”

Ramaphosa’s endorses ceasefire call

As far as the peace process is concerned, perhaps the most significant development, though, was Ramaphosa’s endorsement of Zelensky’s call for an unconditional ceasefire so that negotiations could begin.

“This, we believe, is a very positive signal that should be embraced,” Ramaphosa said. This statement distinguished South Africa’s position from that of Putin, who has so far offered only conditional ceasefires – which Russia has then broken.

It also seemed to distinguish SA’s position from that of Trump, whose plan, which Zelensky has rejected, went deep into the pre-conditions and content of negotiations, by demanding that Ukraine surrender Crimea and its Nato ambitions in advance.

Ramaphosa said that South Africa was ready to do whatever it could to bring peace to Ukraine. He noted that South Africa had already contributed to peace efforts through the African peace initiative to Ukraine and Russia, which Ramaphosa led in June 2023, and through its participation in Zelensky’s peace formula international talks in 2023 and 2024.

Ramaphosa was particularly pleased with Ukraine for its contribution to the liberation struggle, noting that many freedom fighters had been educated or trained in the country. Russia makes much of its contribution to the liberation struggle, but Ukraine has pointed out that it was also part of the Soviet Union, which had provided that support.

Abducted children

Zelensky said at the press conference that South Africa had been part of international efforts to secure the return of Ukrainian children, estimated at 20,000, whom Russia abducted when it invaded Ukraine and deported to Russia.

He said Ukraine had now given South Africa a list of about 400 children whom it asked Pretoria to try to recover. Sybiha later explained that Ukraine was also giving lists of children to other countries involved in the efforts to rescue the children.

He said he thought South Africa and other countries could also contribute to the peace efforts by providing monitors to uphold a comprehensive ceasefire, if that could be agreed upon.

DA leader John Steenhuisen, who participated in the talks with Ukraine as agriculture minister, said “what we have now is an opportunity for South Africa, as one of the leading countries in the global south, to use this platform and our leverage to play a role in bringing peace in that particular region.”

He thought SA’s position in BRICS and in other organisations had a relationship with Russia that could help it to push for peace.

“So I think that there are a lot of Western powers at odds with each other on the matter. I think that having an interlocutor from a different hemisphere will help to maybe bring some perspective.”

Bilateral relations

Zelensky and Ramaphosa both noted that their meeting, and the wider meeting of their ministers, had made good progress on improving bilateral relations.

Zelensky said they had discussed energy security, including possible Ukrainian support in developing nuclear energy, possible joint fertiliser production and SA acquiring Ukrainian defence technologies, including drones which could be used, for instance, in anti-poaching surveillance in nature reserves, Sybiha said.

He noted that he and other Ukrainian ministers had held a business forum in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Ramaphosa said the two delegations had also discussed cooperation in post-conflict reconstruction and empowerment of women.

“We also discussed the opportunities for cooperation in areas such as agriculture, trade, education, infrastructure and energy and other social initiatives.”

Steenhuisen said the Ukrainians had shown a lot of interest in importing South African citrus and other fruit, as well as beef and mutton. They were considering becoming a hub in Europe for the distribution of South African beef, in particular.

There was also a huge opportunity for South Africa to gain access to Ukrainian fertiliser as the price of that vital input into agriculture had risen about 300% in recent years.

Conversely, in certain seasons, South Africa needed to import grain – and Ukraine was one of the grain baskets of the world. DM

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