Four presidents and three representatives are due to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv before heading to Saint Petersburg on Saturday to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
“It is at times of escalated conflict that a search for peace must be equally accelerated,” South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.
The high-profile diplomatic team hopes to bring to the table the voice of a continent that has been badly hit by rising grain prices and the wider impact on global trade since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
“We are keen to engage with them… to see whether there is a space to come up with joint efforts that would bring peace in Ukraine closer,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said in a statement.
Yet the initiative, the latest in a flurry of so-far unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to stop the bloodshed, does not kick
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