Trump spoke about his bewilderment over Zelensky's visit to South Africa in April.

During a meeting with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on May 21, US President Donald Trump said he was surprised and displeased when he learned about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's trip to South Africa in April.

"I called Zelensky, and they told me that he was in South Africa. I said, what the hell is he doing in South Africa?" he said.

The US president clarified that he was going to discuss the situation around the conflict in Ukraine with Zelensky, but representatives of the Ukrainian side reported that he was on a visit to Cape Town and could not receive the call. Trump stressed that earlier the Ukrainian leader had repeatedly expressed interest in dialogue with the United States, which made the refusal of negotiations especially unexpected.

Ramaofasa, in turn, said that during negotiations with Zelensky, he advised him to follow the example of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

"Nelson Mandela taught us how to create, create the world. So we passed it on to him (Zelensky. — Ed.) some of these lessons, some of this knowledge. And I specifically mentioned to him what Nelson Mandela taught us: when you want to achieve peace in your country, do it unconditionally — sit down and speak," Ramaphosa said.

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Zelensky's visit to South Africa took place on April 24. Prior to that, on April 14, Tony Yengeni, a former member of the National Executive Committee of the ruling Party of South Africa, opposed the visit of the Ukrainian president to the republic. He stressed that he did not believe in Zelensky's intention to talk about a settlement of the conflict.