MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon meet with the leaders of several African countries to discuss their initiative for resolving the situation in Ukraine. The agreement was reached in his conversation with South Africa’s leader Cyril Ramaphosa, the Kremlin's press service said.

"They discussed issues related to the well-known African initiative for finding ways of resolving the Ukrainian conflict. It was agreed that Vladimir Putin would receive a delegation of a number of African heads of state in the near future," the statement reads.

On June 5, the presidents of Egypt, the Comoros, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia held video consultations on an African peace initiative for resolving the crisis in Ukraine. South African presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya told TASS on Tuesday that the meeting was a preparatory one, held ahead of the upcoming trip to Moscow and Kiev by several African leaders.

During the consultations, the heads of state agreed that they would discuss with Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky the details of a cease-fire agreement and a lasting peace in the region. They also instructed their foreign ministers to put finishing touches to a roadmap plan for advancing peace in Ukraine. The presidents confirmed their readiness to visit Moscow and Kiev in mid-June.

On May 16, Ramaphosa announced that the Russian and Ukrainian authorities had agreed to host an African delegation to seek a peace resolution of the conflict. Ramaphosa was speaking on behalf of a group of six African countries: Egypt, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia. Now the incumbent chair of the African Union, the Comoros, has been added to this list.