Following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, President Cyril Ramaphosa said South Africa’s peace efforts regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were bearing fruit.
President Cyril Ramaphosa met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and they discussed the African Peace Initiative and the Black Sea Grain Initiative amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said South Africa valued “the importance of engaging all parties to conflicts to achieve peaceful, just and enduring resolutions”.
“It is these principles that inform South Africa’s participation in the African Peace Initiative, which seeks a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“Our participation in the African Peace Initiative is informed by a desire to see an end to the suffering of those most directly affected by the conflict and the millions on our continent and across the world who, as a result of the conflict, are now vulnerable to worsening hunger and deprivation,” Ramaphosa said.
“As we engaged with the parties in this conflict, as African leaders, one of the issues we raised was that there should be confidence-building measures that could create a sense of [confidence] towards the resolution of this conflict. In this regard, we said issues such as the children who were removed from Ukraine…
