President Cyril Ramaphosa says he is hopeful that the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine will soon end. Russia invaded Ukraine three weeks ago saying it wanted to denazify and demilitarised Ukraine.
The country had expressed a strong wish to move closer to the EU and NATO.
Delivering a keynote address at investment company Ninety One’s anniversary celebration in Cape Town, Ramaphosa said that he got the sense that an agreement to cease hostilities will be reached soon, when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ramaphosa has reiterated the need for the conflict to be mediated because it also affects South Africa.
“We’ve been picking up some positive news and when I spoke to President Putin, I got a sense that we are looking at an agreement possibly in the making soon because he too would like to bring this conflict to an end, and I think the President of Ukraine would also like to do that, and I’m hoping to speak to him as well.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s keynote address at the 30th anniversary of proudly SA firm Ninety-One:
Last week, Ramaphosa said: “War in our view is devastating to everyone, to ordinary people, to the country where war is raging, and we have called for mediation. There needs to be proper and positive engagement in this conflict. Mediation in our view is the best way, we were able to engage with our enemies, and we found a solution to what was considered an intractable problem in the world, bringing apartheid to an end.”
Russia-Ukraine crisis | Peaceful engagements are a solution, says President Cyril Ramaphosa
