Zelenskyy curtails South Africa visit after deadly Russian strike on Kyiv

The Ukrainian president held talks with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria before leaving the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has cut short a visit to South Africa as a result of Russia’s deadly overnight attack on Kyiv. Zelenskyy, who only landed in the country on Wednesday evening, said he would leave after a meeting with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria on Thursday morning. The move came in response to a large-scale Russian missile and drone strike which killed nine and injured more than 70 in Ukraine’s capital. The Ukrainian leader had travelled to South Africa, which currently holds the presidency of the G20, in an attempt to “bring a just peace closer”. Ramaphosa has billed himself as a possible mediator in negotiations to end Russia’s all-out war in Ukraine. South Africa's president has said that he is one of the only world leaders with the ability to speak to both sides, as his country has ties with Moscow through the BRICS bloc of developing nations. As part of his efforts, the South African president spoke to Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday, with both leaders saying they were “committed to working together towards a peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict”. This week, Ramaphosa has also discussed Moscow's war in Ukraine with US President Donald Trump. Trump rebuked Zelenskyy on Wednesday, accusing him of jeopardising US-led peace negotiations by saying that Ukraine will not cede Russian-occupied Crimea, the peninsula Moscow unilaterally annexed in 2014. “There is nothing to talk about. It is our land, the land of the Ukrainian people,” Zelenskyy said earlier this week. In response, Trump lambasted the Ukrainian president on social media, writing that his statement “will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field'". US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Washington will abandon its push for peace in Ukraine if progress is not made soon. Rubio decided not to attend talks in London on Wednesday between US, European and Ukrainian officials.