President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office on Thursday confirmed he had a telephonic conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the upcoming African leaders' peace mission to Kyiv and Moscow.

The confirmation comes after the Kremlin said the two leaders, who belong to the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) bloc, discussed developmental and bilateral relations on Wednesday night. 

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the two presidents also discussed the Russia-Africa summit scheduled to take place at the end of July in St Petersburg, Russia.

“Putin has welcomed the initiative by African heads of state and expressed his desire to receive the peace mission. The telephone conversation with President Putin followed a discussion which took place on Monday among the African leaders.”

African leaders this week discussed their forthcoming separate engagements with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at finding a way to end to the conflict.

This is not the first time Ramaphosa had spoken to Putin. He has also spoken to Zelensky since the war broke out in February 2022. 

Last month TimesLIVE reported that during a phone call between Ramaphosa and Zelensky, the latter warned Ramaphosa against “arming the aggressor”. 

Zelensky said: “I spoke about the peace formula, about justice and that our world should be united by the rules of international law. Anyone who helps the aggressor with a weapon will be accomplice, with all the consequences.    

“I called on Mr President [Ramaphosa] to join together with other countries, all continents and Africa to work to implement our peace formula.” 

Zelensky was referring to allegations that arms had been loaded onto a Russian ship, the Lady R, in Simon’s Town in December. Ramaphosa has instituted an inquiry to establish the facts. 

TimesLIVE