Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has praised African leaders’ actions taken toward Russia-Ukraine crisis, indicating the level of concern and interest in creating a peaceful world. It also shows the degree of their envisioned role in global affairs, especially steps taken by African countries towards resolution of the disputes and crisis in the Eurasia region.

Lavrov made the remarks to an Africa-related question, during the Ambassadorial Roundtable discussion, Ukraine Crisis: The West’s True Goals and Role, held on June 23, 2026. The Roundtable was exclusively organized by the Russian Foreign Ministry and, attended by foreign Ambassadors and Senior Diplomats, accredited in the Russian Federation.

Lavrov, however, noted that “African countries have been demonstrating their interest in assisting this process from the very start of the special military operation,” and placed a special emphasis on efforts by President of the Republic of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa. Following the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit in 2023, he arrived at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin as part of a group of African countries, about ten of them, to discuss ways to contribute to settling the conflict. They were receptive to Moscow’s assessments, including the story on how the initiative to sign a deal in Istanbul in April 2022 fell apart.

President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa and his team made a special point on trying to understand what can be done to address this situation in terms of its humanitarian aspects. Following this discussion, South Africa’s then Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor and Lavrov worked together to coordinate a final statement. It focused on certain specific steps, which were designed to make mechanisms dealing with prisoner exchanges, locating missing person, etc. more effective. This group has remained proactive after that.

“There have been no specific proposals lately, but we do know that South Africa and several other African countries are part of the Friends of Peace group in Ukraine as established by the People’s Republic of China and Brazil. They hold regular meetings at the United Nations at the level of their respective permanent representatives. This may seem quite odd, but apart from the countries of the Global South, representatives of France and Switzerland have been invited to take part in these meetings. It can be argued that having the French and the Swiss hear the voice of the Global Majority could be quite useful. The Republic of South Africa and other........

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