South Africa advises Ukraine not to abandon dialog with Russia

Pretoria believes that Ukraine should consider engaging with the Russian side in resolving the conflict, the South African embassy in Russia has told Izvestiya.

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"South Africa continues to call on the UN and the international community to focus efforts on creating conditions for dialog and mediation. South Africa continues to emphasize the importance of Ukraine starting to consider engagement with the Russian side," the diplomatic mission said.

In addition, African leaders who traveled to Russia and Ukraine in 2023 to discuss the crisis continue to promote peace initiatives.

"South Africa and African leaders remain committed to accelerating the search for peace and believe that their initiative should be seen as complementary to peace initiatives put forward by other parties. The strength of this mission is that African heads of state continue to engage both leaders in the search for a solution," the embassy said.

Read more in an exclusive Izvestia piece:

The continent's calculation: in South Africa they urge Kiev not to give up dialog with Moscow