UKRANIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in South Africa early on Thursday, 24 April for official talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa later in the day in Pretoria.
Zelensky and his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, arrived at Lanseria Airport outside Johannesburg in the dark. He was greeted by International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola and other officials as well as Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa, Liubov Abravitova.
A military guard lined the red carpet as Zelensky stepped onto South African soil for the first time. It is also his first visit as president to Africa.
Zelensky was scheduled to arrive at the Union Buildings in Pretoria at 11am for his official meeting with Ramaphosa.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said this first visit by a Ukrainian head of state to South Africa “follows on the visit to Ukraine by President Ramaphosa, as part of the Africa Peace Initiative to Ukraine on 16 June 2023”.
“The visit provides South Africa and Ukraine with an opportunity to discuss bilateral relations and expand bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade, agriculture and education. It will also explore areas of cooperation with the objective to support efforts to bring lasting peace.”
It is understood that South African agricultural organisations are keen to make deals to import Ukrainian agricultural produce including wheat and fertiliser. Other areas of cooperation might include digital governance.
Apart from the African Peace Initiative which Dirco referred to, South Africa has been participating in Zelensky’s own international peace formula talks and also agreed in 2024 to contribute to negotiations for the return of Ukrainian children abducted and deported to Russia during Russia’s occupation of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Zelensky arrives in South Africa at a moment when US President Donald Trump is putting pressure on him to accept a peace deal with Russia that would require Ukraine to give up the large swathes of its territory occupied by Russia and to abandon its ambitions to join Nato.
Zelensky rejected the US plan flatly.
“There is nothing to talk about,” Zelensky said. “This violated our constitution. This is our territory, the territory of Ukraine.”
Trump retorted on social media that the Ukrainian president was being “inflammatory” and said he would only “prolong the ‘killing field”.
Ramaphosa and Zelensky will have a joint press conference after their meeting on Thursday morning. Zelensky is then expected to meet members of the Ukrainian community in South Africa and will brief South African and African journalists this afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Ukranian President said he would leave immediately after meeting Pres Ramaphosa.
He will cut his visit short and return to Kyiv because of a massive Russian missile attack on the capital which he said had killed nine people.
