UKRAINE’S President Voldymyr Zelensky urged South Africa on Saturday to plead with President Cyril Ramaphosa to use his influence to persuade the global South to press Russia to end its war with his country.

The move by Mr Zelensky comes amid renewed diplomatic effort, spearheaded by United States President Donald Trump to push Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.

In a social media post following talks with his Mr Ramaphosa on Saturday, Mr Zelensky stressed that the conflict “must be brought to an end” and that “the killings and destruction must be stopped.”

“I reaffirmed my readiness for any format of meeting with the head of Russia,” the Ukrainian leader said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“However, we see that Moscow is once again trying to drag everything out even further. It is important that the global South sends relevant signals and pushes Russia toward peace.”

Russia has often raised the difficulty of reaching a formal agreement with Mr Zelensky who cancelled elections scheduled for April 2024 and who is therefore without a legitimate presidential mandate.

Moscow has also indicated that it is not opposed to raising the diplomatic level of the sporadic discussions that have taken place aimed at ending the conflict. 

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press that Mr Putin “is ready to meet with Mr Zelensky when the agenda is ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all.” 

Mr Ramaphosa said he understood “the urgency of holding bilateral and trilateral meetings between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine and the US.”

The office of the South African president said in a statement that such talks will be “key to signal a firm commitment to ending the war.”

The South African leader, who currently chairs the G20, also spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, the statement added.

“President Ramaphosa calls on all parties to seize this moment and sustain the momentum towards peace between Russia and Ukraine,” it said.

Nations in the global South have not shown much inclination to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

South Africa, despite huge pressure from Western powers, abstained with 16 other African countries from condemning Russia when a vote was taken at the United Nations after the February 2022 invasion.

The South Africans said they were working with other countries, such as China and Brazil, to find a peaceful resolution of the conflict.