Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cut short a trip to South Africa after Russian drone and missile strikes which killed at least eight people and injured about 80
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday called for an immediate end to intensified attacks by Russia on his country and pleaded for increased support, including from the US, to push Vladimir Putin’s government towards greater commitment to an unconditional ceasefire.
Zelenskyy cut short a long-planned state visit to South Africa after Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital Kyiv overnight with missiles and drones, leaving at least eight people dead and injuring dozens, including children.
“We have got losses, destruction, in the capital, in other localities in all of the regions of Ukraine, more than 80 people were wounded in the strikes.
“Unfortunately, we have people killed in Kyiv,” Zelenskyy told a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday through a translator, after talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“We are thankful for your support of Ukraine, for your sharing our understanding that this war has to be ended as soon as possible. This was our primary topic to discuss with President Ramaphosa. Today, we discussed with the president the importance to unite global efforts to have this aggregate pressure on Russia for the sake of peace, to stop the war.”
Earlier, Zelenskyy had posted on X that 44 days had passed since Ukraine had agreed to a full ceasefire and a halt to strikes, as proposed by US President Donald Trump, adding: “And it has been 44 days of Russia continuing to kill our people and evading tough pressure and accountability for its actions.”
At the briefing Ramaphosa reiterated South Africa’s position that “the only path to peace is through diplomacy, inclusive dialogue, and a commitment to the principles of the United Nations Charter”.
“From the experience of our own journey from apartheid to democracy, we value the importance of engaging all parties to conflicts to achieve peaceful, just and enduring solutions. If there is one thing our history has taught us, it is that diplomacy and dialogue are more powerful than any weapon,” he added.
Zelenskyy arrived in South Africa with his back against the wall after the US ratcheted up the pressure on him to accept a peace deal that plays into Putin’s hands.
On Wednesday, US Vice President JD Vance told reporters in India that the US was proposing freezing territorial lines “at some level close to where they are today”.
Trump drove home the point in a social media post saying Zelenskyy could choose between these terms or continued resistance that would see him ceding all of Ukraine to Russia.
“He can have peace or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country [sic],” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Vance’s remarks provided blunt public confirmation the American proposal aligns closely with Moscow’s stated demands.
Putin has for the past year suggested he would accept a deal that entails Ukraine withdrawing from four provinces — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which he decreed to be part of Russia in late 2022 — and renouncing its aspiration to join Nato.
Purporting to annex the provinces some seven months into the war was an attempt to recast the invasion as a defensive act, designed to protect Russian not an aggression in breach of international law. Russia has exercised control over portions of Luhansk and Donetsk since 2014, when it annexed Crimea.
At present, it controls roughly 18 percent of Ukraine, and perpetuating the current reality will reward Putin for invading a former member of the Soviet Union, which has been a sovereign state since 1991.
But Vance was explicit that the US expected Ukraine to cede territory.
“The current lines, or somewhere close to them, is where you’re ultimately, I think, going to draw the new lines in the conflict,” he said.
The proposal was swiftly welcomed by a Kremlin spokesperson but Zelenskyy has rejected it, along with any bar on future Nato membership.
“Ukraine will not legally recognise the occupation of Crimea,” he said at a media briefing on Tuesday. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our Constitution.”
In an apparent show of dismay, US secretary of state Marco Rubio withdrew from ceasefire talks with European and Ukrainian officials in London on Wednesday. He had warned Ukraine last week that Trump was losing patience.
Asked about this in Pretoria on Thursday, Zelenskyy said: “If Russia declares its readiness to a ceasefire, first of all, they have to stop dealing these massive strikes against Ukraine. I’m not sure whose patience is wearing thin and where, but I think that the patience ultimately will wear thin among the Ukrainians, because it is us who suffer these strikes.”
Trump’s approach has disabused South African negotiators of their belief they would find in him an ally in efforts to end the conflict.
Though Ramaphosa and his government has since the outset had sympathy for Putin’s objection to Ukraine’s campaign to join Nato — the president has pointed to US diplomat Henry Kissinger’s 1994 warning against eastward expansion of the alliance — its own insistence on respect for sovereignty constrains it to oppose the transfer of territory to Russia.
This has become more apparent since Ronald Lamola took over as minister of international relations last year. He has gone on record to call the invasion a violation of international law, and privately, South African diplomats caution that allowing Russia to claim land on the pretext of protecting the nationalist aspirations of the inhabitants would set a dangerous global precedent.
In February, South Africa for the first time voted in support of a UN resolution on Ukraine. It called for respect for territorial integrity but stopped short of demanding Russian withdrawal.
At the briefing on Thursday, Ramaphosa said he had spoken to Trump and Putin in recent days to discuss a peaceful way forward. He rejected suggestions Trump wanted South Africa to pressure Zelenskyy.
“I had an opportunity to speak to President Donald Trump yesterday … We both agreed that the war should be brought to an end as soon as possible to prevent further death and destruction,” he said.
“We both agreed to meet soon to address various matters regarding US-South Africa relations,” he said, referring euphemistically to a three-month diplomatic deep freeze between Pretoria and Washington.
Ramaphosa added he and Putin were committed to working together towards a peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
South Africa’s own template for peace is rooted in a 10-point plan Ramaphosa put to Putin and Zelenskyy during a diplomatic mission by African states in 2023.
It calls for respectful dialogue, a cessation of hostilities with security guarantees and respect for sovereign territory, as per the UN Charter.
Privately, South African officials have been adamant Zelenskyy will need to make concessions, without clear indication what those might be, and have been impatient with his insistence Putin cannot be trusted, hence security guarantees are needed.