MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is ready to host a peace mission of African states and listen to their proposals, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Sergey Nikiforov said on Wednesday.

"The Ukrainian president has welcomed such a peace initiative. Vladimir Zelensky is ready to receive distinguished guests in Ukraine and to listen to their proposals," Nikiforov said in a comment to the RBC-Ukraine news agency.

He said that a conversation between Zelensky and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa took place on May 13. The South African president told Zelensky that he intended to visit Ukraine with a mission from several African countries.

Nikiforov also added that Zelensky would invite the mission to join the implementation of the Ukrainian "peace formula."

Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that Russian and Ukrainian authorities had agreed to receive an African delegation to discuss a peace settlement to 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. South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, said on Wednesday that the delegation that was to visit Moscow and Kiev included the presidents of all the six African countries in question.

Zane Dangor, the Director-General of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, has said that an African mission was to visit Moscow and Kiev in early June to discuss ways of resolving the Ukrainian crisis.