Members of a South African delegation that arrived in Kyiv on 16 June to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and discuss their vision of a "peace plan" for Ukraine claimed that they had not heard any explosions in Kyiv. Despite the fact that the delegation had to go down to a bomb shelter, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called the reports of the attack "lies and disinformation". However, he later admitted that he had heard the explosions.

He said this during a press conference following the meeting. According to Ramaphosa, he "heard rocket attacks" (to watch the video, scroll to the bottom of the page).

"Today, during our visit, we heard rocket attacks. Such activities do not work well for peace. That is why we are talking about the need for de-escalation on both sides so that peace can find a way to come and resolve the problem," Ramaphosa said.

He added that during his visit to Russia tomorrow, they will talk to Putin about his "vision of the road to peace".

Earlier, the South African president denied all statements made by the official Kyiv authorities about another threat of Russian shelling, saying: "This is disinformation and untrue".

Ramaphosa's words were confirmed by his aide Vincent Magwenya, who is also travelling with him. He denied that he and his colleagues had heard the explosions and said that the Ukrainian authorities were allegedly escalating the situation for some reason.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, members of the South African delegation played along with Russia after its attack on Kyiv, claiming that they had not heard any explosions.

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