Government is investigating allegations that R14 million was paid to facilitate the recruitment of South African men to fight on Russian frontlines, as 15 of the 17 men who sought help to return home have now been repatriated.

Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni confirmed during a post Cabinet media briefing on Thursday that investigations are under way into payments allegedly linked to private military recruitment.

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“What we know for sure is that there were payments that were made,” Ntshavheni said. 

“The investigators will have to establish who received the money and for what purpose and what they did with that money.”

The men, aged between 20 and 39, had contacted South African authorities claiming they were lured to Russia under false pretences. According to Ntshavheni, some families alleged that their sons were trafficked and that a R14 million payment had been made by the Wagner Group to a local intermediary.

The Minister of International Relations is meeting affected families in KwaZulu-Natal as part of ongoing consular support.

Ntshavheni said the contracts signed by the men with military contractors complicated efforts to secure their release.

“These young men were made to sign contracts, and that bound them into a time period,” she said. 

“The parties that contracted them declined to release them without payment.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa intervened directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin after it became clear that the arrangements were not with the Russian government itself.

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“We accept that it’s not the Russian government that has recruited South Africans, but we need your intervention to get our young people back,” Ntshavheni said, explaining the diplomatic engagement.

Fifteen men have since returned to South Africa, while one remains in hospital in Russia and another is finalising travel arrangements.

When asked whether the men who were duped into going to Russia would face criminal liability under South African law, Minister Ntshavheni said the matter is still under investigation. 

She confirmed that the recruitment itself may have violated the Foreign Military Assistance Act, but Cabinet cannot speculate on the men’s criminal liability.

“The investigations are ongoing to establish the facts, including the payments made and who facilitated the recruitment,” she said. 

She also confirmed that government is aware of South Africans participating in conflicts elsewhere, including in Israel, but would not disclose numbers.

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“We cannot disclose the numbers,” she said.

Investigations into the recruitment network are continuing, with law enforcement expected to brief the country once evidence has been consolidated.

Cabinet described the safe return of the men as a priority intervention to prevent further harm, amid warnings that participation in foreign conflicts without authorisation is unlawful under South African law.

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A WhatsApp spokesperson said late Wednesday that the Russian authorities’ action was intended to “drive users to a state-owned surveillance app,” a reference to Russia’s own state-supported MAX messaging app that’s seen by critics as a surveillance tool.

“Trying to isolate over 100 million people from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia,” the WhatsApp spokesperson said. “We continue to do everything we can to keep people connected.”

Russia’s government has already blocked major social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and ramped up other online restrictions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms should comply with Russian law to see it unblocked, according to the state Tass news agency.

Earlier this week, Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it will introduce new restrictions on the Telegram messaging app after accusing it of refusing to abide by the law. The move triggered widespread criticism from military bloggers, who warned that Telegram was widely used by Russian troops fighting in Ukraine and its throttling would derail military communications.

Despite the announcement, Telegram has largely been working normally. Some experts say it’s a more difficult target, compared with WhatsApp. Some Russian experts said that blocking WhatsApp would free up technological resources and allow authorities to fully focus on Telegram, their priority target.

Authorities had previously restricted access to WhatsApp before moving to finally ban it Wednesday.

Under President Vladimir Putin, authorities have engaged in deliberate and multipronged efforts to rein in the internet. They have adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that don’t comply, and focused on improving technology to monitor and manipulate online traffic.

Russian authorities have throttled YouTube and methodically ramped up restrictions against popular messaging platforms, blocking Signal and Viber and banning online calls on WhatsApp and Telegram. In December, they imposed restrictions on Apple’s video calling service FaceTime.

While it’s still possible to circumvent some of the restrictions by using virtual private network services, many of them are routinely blocked, too.

At the same time, authorities actively promoted the “national” messaging app called MAX, which critics say could be used for surveillance. The platform, touted by developers and officials as a one-stop shop for messaging, online government services, making payments and more, openly declares it will share user data with authorities upon request. Experts also say it doesn’t use end-to-end encryption.

AP

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The termination of the New START Treaty would set the stage for what many fear could be an unconstrained nuclear arms race.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared readiness to stick to the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington follows suit, but President Donald Trump has been noncommittal about extending it.

Trump has repeatedly indicated he would like to keep limits on nuclear weapons and involve China in arms control talks, a White House official who was not authorized to talk publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said Monday. Trump will make a decision on nuclear arms control “on his own timeline,” the official said.

Beijing has balked at any restrictions on its smaller but growing nuclear arsenal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday it would be a “more dangerous” world without limits on U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles.

Arms control advocates long have voiced concern about the expiration of New START, warning it could lead to a new Russia-U.S. arms race, foment global instability and increase the risk of nuclear conflict.

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called for the treaty “not to be abandoned without seeking to ensure its concrete and effective continuation.”

Failure to agree on keeping the pact’s limits will likely encourage a bigger deployment, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington.

“We’re at the point now where the two sides could, with the expiration of this treaty, for the first time in about 35 years, increase the number of nuclear weapons that are deployed on each side,” Kimball told The Associated Press.

“And this would open up the possibility of an unconstrained, dangerous three-way arms race, not just between the U.S. and Russia, but also involving China, which is also increasing its smaller but still deadly nuclear arsenal.”

Kingston Reif of the RAND Corporation, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, also warned during an online discussion that “in the absence of the predictability of the treaty, each side could be incentivized to plan for the worst or to increase their deployed arsenals to show toughness and resolve, or to search for negotiating leverage.”

Putin repeatedly has brandished Russia’s nuclear might since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, warning Moscow was prepared to use “all means” to protect its security interests. In 2024, he signed a revised nuclear doctrine lowering the threshold for nuclear weapons use.

Signed in 2010
New START, signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers — deployed and ready for use. It was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five more years.

The pact envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.

In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, saying Russia couldn’t allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.

In offering in September to abide by New START’s limits for a year to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement, Putin said the pact’s expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel nuclear proliferation.

Rose Gottemoeller, the chief U.S. negotiator for pact and a former NATO deputy secretary-general, said extending it would have served U.S. interests. “A one-year extension of New START limits would not prejudice any of the vital steps that the United States is taking to respond to the Chinese nuclear buildup,” she told an online discussion last month.

Previous pacts

New START followed a long succession of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reduction pacts, starting with SALT I in 1972 signed by U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev — the first attempt to limit their arsenals.

The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty restricted the countries’ missile defense systems until President George W. Bush took the U.S. out of the pact in 2001 despite Moscow’s warnings. The Kremlin has described Washington’s efforts to build a missile shield as a major threat, arguing it would erode Russia’s nuclear deterrent by giving the U.S. the capability to shoot down its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

As a response to the U.S. missile shield, Putin ordered the development of the Burevestnik nuclear-tipped and nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered underwater drone. Russia said last year it successfully tested the Poseidon and the Burevestnik and was preparing their deployment.

Also terminated in 2019 was the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was signed in 1987 and banned land-based missiles with a range between 500-5,500 kilometers (310-3,400 miles). Those missiles were seen as particularly destabilizing because of their short flight time to their targets, leaving only minutes to decide on a retaliatory strike and increasing the threat of a nuclear war on a false warning.

In November 2024 and again last month, Russia attacked Ukraine with a conventional version of its new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. Moscow says it has a range of up to 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), capable of reaching any European target, with either nuclear or conventional warheads.

Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’

Without agreements limiting nuclear arsenals, Russia “will promptly and firmly fend off any new threats to our security,” said Medvedev, who had signed the New START treaty and is now deputy head of Putin’s Security Council.

“If we are not heard, we act proportionately seeking to restore parity,” he said in recent remarks.

Medvedev specifically mentioned Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system among potentially destabilizing moves, emphasizing a close link between offensive and defensive strategic weapons.

Trump’s plan has worried Russia and China, Kimball said.

“They’re likely going to respond to Golden Dome by building up the number of offensive weapons they have to overwhelm the system and make sure that they have the potential to retaliate with nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that offensive capabilities can be built faster and cheaper than defensive ones.

Trump’s October statement about U.S. intentions to resume nuclear tests for the first time since 1992 also troubled the Kremlin, which last conducted a test in 1990 when the USSR still existed. Putin said Russia will respond in kind if the U.S. resumes tests, which are banned by a global treaty that Moscow and Washington signed.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in November that such tests would not include nuclear explosions.

Kimball said a U.S. resumption of tests “would blow a massive hole in the global system to reduce nuclear risk,” prompting Russia to respond in kind and tempting others, including China and India, to follow suit.

The world was heading toward accelerated strategic competition, he said, with more spending and increasingly unstable relations involving the U.S., Russia, and China on nuclear matters.

“This marks a potential turning point into a much more dangerous period of global nuclear competition, the likes of which we’ve not seen in our lifetimes,” Kimball added.

AP

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The Odesa attack involved more than 50 drones, some of them models recently upgraded by Russia to improve their range and strike power, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The drones targeted the power grid, which Russia has repeatedly bombarded during the coldest winter in years, and also hit five apartment blocks, officials said. Emergency crews retrieved the body of a man from the rubble, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.

“The rescue operation will continue until the fate of all people who may be under the rubble is clarified,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that an informal Protestant place of worship was also damaged.

“Each such Russian strike undermines diplomacy, which is still ongoing, and hits, in particular, the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war,” he said.

A diplomatic push by the Trump administration to end the war has made progress, according to officials, but has delivered no breakthrough on the key issue of what happens to Russian-occupied Ukrainian land and other territory that Moscow is demanding.

Analysts says that Russian President Vladimir Putin is in no rush to find a settlement, despite his army’s difficulties on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line. He believes that time is on his side, that Western support for Kyiv will fade and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually break under pressure, according to analysts.

To replenish its forces and keep up the pressure on Kyiv, Moscow is offering cash bonuses, freeing convicts from prison, and luring foreigners to its army.

An Associated Press investigation found that unwitting Bangladeshi workers were enticed to Russia under the false promise of civilian work before being thrown into combat in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Monday the next round of talks with the United States and Russia is penciled in for Feb. 1. but that “it would be good if this meeting could be accelerated.”

He also urged, the in the meantime, additional sanctions be imposed on Russia to compel the Kremlin to make compromises.

Russia fired 165 drones at Ukraine overnight, with 24 of them that got through air defenses hitting targets in seven regions, according to Ukraine’s air force.

In recent weeks, the relentless barrages have damaged some of Ukraine’s protected world heritage sites in Odesa, the western city of Lviv and the capital of Kyiv, UNESCO said Tuesday.

Russia has been improving its drone technology and tactics, striking Ukraine with increasing success.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate said earlier this month that Russia had deployed the new jet-powered “Geran-5” strike drone against Ukraine for the first time. The Geran is a Russian variant of the Iranian-designed Shahed.

According to the directorate, the drone can carry a 90-kilogram (200-pound) warhead and has a range of nearly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles).

In response, Ukraine has significantly expanded production of interceptor drones, as well as developing its own long-range drones.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its air defenses shot down 19 Ukrainian drones overnight over several Russian regions.

AP

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South Africa will on Friday start its controversial week-long round of multinational naval exercises with China, Iran, and Russia at Naval Base Simon’s Town.

The games come despite mounting diplomatic unease from the United States and growing domestic criticism over the country’s military readiness and foreign policy direction.

The exercise, officially titled “Exercise Will for Peace 2026”, will run until next week Friday in South African waters, and is being led by China.

Chinese and Iranian warships have already arrived in False Bay, while Russian naval vessels are expected to dock ahead of the formal launch on Saturday, completing a grouping that has placed Pretoria’s claim of international non-alignment under renewed scrutiny.

Two Chinese vessels, the Type 052DL guided-missile destroyer Tangshan and the Type 903A replenishment ship Taihu, were spotted off the Cape coast earlier this week.

They were joined on Thursday by the Iranian Navy’s forward base ship IRIS Makran, a high-profile platform that has previously been deployed on long-range missions beyond the Middle East.

Russian participation is expected to include a corvette and a supply ship, with arrival anticipated shortly.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has described the exercise as a maritime security operation focused on the protection of shipping lanes and economic activity at sea.

According to a statement issued in December, the drills aim to enhance interoperability and cooperation “in support of peaceful maritime security initiatives” and will involve navies from BRICS-Plus countries.

While the drills have been billed as a BRICS-Plus engagement, key BRICS members such as India and Brazil are not participating.

US President Donald Trump has recently accused BRICS countries of pursuing “anti-American” policies, and South Africa’s relations with Washington have already been strained by its close ties with Russia and Iran, and its decision to bring a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over the Gaza war.

South Africa was sharply criticised by Western partners in 2023 for hosting joint naval exercises with Russia and China on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Iran’s participation in the current exercise is likely to intensify those concerns, given Tehran’s ongoing standoff with the United States and its role in regional conflicts in the Middle East.

The DA has raised objections ahead of the opening ceremony, saying that hosting war games with China, Russia and Iran undermines South Africa’s professed non-aligned stance.

DA defence spokesperson Chris Hattingh said the exercise risks drawing South Africa into global power politics while offering little tangible benefit.

Hattingh said hosting the military forces of Iran and Russia is not neutral, adding that Parliament has not been adequately briefed on the costs, command structure or diplomatic consequences of the exercise.

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The intense barrage and the launching of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile came days after Ukraine and its allies reported major progress toward agreeing on how to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a peace deal is struck to end Russia’s almost 4-year-old invasion.

Months of U.S.-led peace efforts have failed to stop the fighting, however. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has made significant progress on the terms of a possible peace settlement in talks with Washington envoys. But Moscow has given no public signal it is willing to budge from its demands.

The attack comes amid a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington after Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. It also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled he is on board with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Moscow.

Ukrainian officials said four people were killed and at least 22 wounded in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, during the overnight attack as apartment buildings were struck.

Those killed included an emergency medical aid worker, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. Five rescue workers sustained injuries while responding to the ongoing attacks, Ukraine’s security service said.

The attack damaged the Qatari Embassy in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said Friday. He noted that Qatar has played a key role in mediating the exchange of prisoners of war.

He called for a “clear response” from the international community, particularly from the United States, which he said Russia takes seriously.

Moscow says attack was retaliation
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack was a retaliation to what Moscow said was a Ukrainian drone strike on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence last month. Both Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump have rejected the Russian claim of the attack on Putin’s residence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said that the Oreshnik streaks to its target at Mach 10, “like a meteorite,” and has claimed it is immune to any missile defense system. Several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack, according to Putin, who has warned the West that Russia could use the Oreshnik next against allies of Kyiv that allow it to strike inside Russia with their longer-range missiles.

Ukrainian intelligence says the missile has six warheads, each carrying six submunitions.

Russia didn’t say where Oreshnik hit, but Russian media and military bloggers said it targeted a huge underground natural gas storage facility in Ukraine’s western Lviv region. Foreign military aid for Ukraine is believed to pass through that region, which borders Poland.

Russia first used the Oreshnik missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. Analysts say it affords Russia a new element of psychological warfare, unnerving Ukrainians and scaring Western countries that supply weaponry to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would be initiating international action in response to the use of the missile, including an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council and a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.

“Such a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community. We demand strong responses to Russia’s reckless actions,” he said in a post on X.

Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi said that Russia struck critical infrastructure with a ballistic missile, but didn’t give details. He said the missile traveled at a speed of 13,000 kilometers (more than 8,000 miles) per hour — which would be around Mach 10 — and that the specific type of rocket was being investigated.

Attacks hit Kyiv apartment blocks
In Kyiv, several districts were hit in the attack, said Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. In the Desnyanskyi district a drone crashed onto the roof of a multi-story building. At another address in the same district the first two floors of a residential building were damaged.

In Dnipro district, parts of a drone damaged a multistory building and a fire broke out.

Dmytro Karpenko’s windows were shattered in the attack on Kyiv. When he saw that his neighbor’s house was on fire, he rushed out to help him.

“What Russia is doing, of course, shows that they do not want peace. But people really want peace, people are suffering, people are dying,” the 45-year old said.

Running water and electricity were disrupted in parts of the capital as a result of the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The attack took place just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alerted the nation about Russia’s intentions for a large-scale offensive. He said that Russia aimed to take advantage of the frigid weather in the capital that has made roads and streets perilously icy.

AP

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Five suspects arrested in connection with an alleged operation to recruit South Africans to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine have been granted bail at the Kempton Park Magistrates’ Court.

SABC freelance radio presenter Nonkululeko Mantula, Thulani Mazibuko,  Xolani Ntuli, Siphamandla Chabalala, and Sifiso Mabena face charges under the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act of 1998.

The legislation prohibits South Africans from taking part in armed conflicts abroad without government approval.

The arrests were carried out by the Hawks’ Crimes Against the State (CATS) unit after a tip-off from police at OR Tambo International Airport. Officers were alerted to four individuals preparing to board a flight to Russia via the United Arab Emirates. 

The group was stopped at the boarding gate and handed over to the Hawks for further investigation. A fifth suspect was arrested later and linked to the same operation.

Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale said the arrests formed part of a broader probe into how South Africans were being facilitated into joining the Russian military.

Early findings suggested that the alleged recruitment network involved a South African woman who helped coordinate travel for those seeking to enlist, a detail that aligns with the state’s case against Mantula, who prosecutors say played a central organising role.

In court, the magistrate confirmed that the state did not oppose bail.

“The state is not opposed to the release of the applicants on bail. The state has not adduced any evidence in respect of this application.”

The court also scrutinised Ntuli’s background because his bail application fell under Schedule 5. The magistrate noted that he had been preparing to leave for Russia at the time of his arrest.

Bail was set at R30 000 for Mantula, R15 000 for Ntuli, and R5 000 each for Mazibuko, Chabalala and Mabena. All five were ordered to surrender their passports and are barred from leaving South Africa until the case concludes.

“The valid passports of accused 1 to 5 shall remain in the custody of the investigating officer… The accused are ordered not to depart from the Republic,” the magistrate ruled.

Mantula must also inform the investigating officer 48 hours before any domestic travel.

The arrests come amid growing scrutiny of alleged recruitment efforts in South Africa. Last Month, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of former president Jacob Zuma, resigned as an uMkhonto weSizwe Party MP following claims, which she denies, that she was linked to similar recruitment activities.

All five accused are expected back in court on 10 February 2026 as investigations continue.

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The Russian leader “should end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged Putin to “stop wasting the world’s time.”

The remarks reflect the high tensions and gaping gulf that remain between Russia on one side and Ukraine and its European allies on the other over how to end a war that Moscow started when it invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago.

A day earlier, Putin accused the Europeans of sabotaging the U.S.-led peace efforts — and warned that, if provoked, Russia would be ready for war with Europe.

Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, European governments, along with the U.S., have spent billions of dollars to support Kyiv financially and militarily. Under President Donald Trump, however, the U.S. has tempered its support — and instead made a push to end the war.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin spokesman said he wouldn’t discuss the substance of the talks but pushed back on any suggestion that Putin had rejected the U.S. peace plan.

Where the peace talks go from here depends largely on whether the Trump administration decides to increase the pressure on Russia or on Ukraine to make concessions.

Unclear where peace talks go now

A U.S. peace proposal that became public last month was criticized for being tilted heavily toward Moscow because it granted some of the Kremlin’s core demands that Kyiv has rejected as nonstarters.

Many European leaders worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten their countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread sabotage campaign.

Putin met Tuesday in Moscow with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Russian and American sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks, but at least one major hurdle to a settlement — the fate of four Ukrainian regions Russia partially seized and occupies and claims as its own — remains.

After the talks, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to Putin, told reporters that “so far, a compromise hasn’t been found” on the issue of territory, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees “no resolution to the crisis.”

Ukraine has ruled out giving up territory that Russia has captured.

Asked whether peace was closer or further away after these talks, Ushakov said: “Not further, that’s for sure.”

“But there’s still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in Moscow,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that it was “not correct” to say that Putin had rejected the U.S. peace plan. He declined to comment further on the talks.

“We’re deliberately not going to add anything,” he said. “It’s understood that the quieter these negotiations are conducted, the more productive they will be.”

AP

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South Africa’s welcome to world leaders for the G20 Leaders Summit has begun amid diplomatic frictions and calls for unity.

The country has officially begun hosting the G20 Leaders Summit, with several heads of state already touching down in Johannesburg.

Among the first to arrive were Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, China’s Premier Li Qiang, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who landed at OR Tambo International Airport on Friday morning, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to arrive on Friday.

While some leaders arrived earlier this week, the summit taking place at the Nasrec Expo Centre on 22 – 23 November will mark the first time the G20 is hosted on African soil.

The United States of America (US) will take over the G20 presidency from South Africa.

42 countries and organisations have confirmed attendance. Expected leaders include:

• Narendra Modi (India)

• Emmanuel Macron (France)

• Olaf Scholz (Germany)

• Fumio Kishida (Japan)

• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil)

• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey)

• Mohammed bin Salman (Saudi Arabia)

• Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa – Host)

Notably absent is American President Donald Trump, whose administration has declined to send a delegation, citing unresolved diplomatic tensions.

The summit unfolds against a backdrop of geopolitical strain:

• US – China relations remain tense over trade, Taiwan, and cybersecurity.

• EU – Russia dynamics are strained due to the Russia-Ukraine war, ongoing sanctions and energy disputes.

• Middle East instability continues to affect global oil markets and refugee flows.

African leaders are pushing for debt relief and equitable climate financing, often sidelined at previous summits.

The South African presidency has emphasised inclusive development, climate justice, and digital transformation as key themes. The absence of the US threatens to dilute consensus on global action, especially on climate and trade.

Leaders on social media have urged for a renewed spirit of cooperation.

International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola said the country needed to rise above differences and commit to solutions that serve all humanity.

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The nighttime attack hit two nine-story apartment blocks in Ternopil, located around 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the Polish border, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Emergency crews were sifting through the rubble in daylight to find any survivors, he said. At least 66 people, including 16 children, were injured, emergency services said.

Russia fired 476 strike and decoy drones, as well as 48 missiles of various types, at Ukrainian targets overnight, Ukraine’s air force said. The bombardment included 47 cruise missiles, with air defenses intercepting all but six of them, the air force said. Western-supplied F-16 and Mirage-2000 jets intercepted at least 10 cruise missiles, it said.

“Every brazen attack against ordinary life indicates that the pressure on Russia (to stop the war) is insufficient,” Zelenskyy wrote on the messaging app Telegram.

Zelenskyy meets with Turkish president
The Ukrainian leader said he would meet with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later Wednesday as part of his efforts to diplomatically isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring more international pressure to bear on him. Putin has so far resisted making compromises, despite U.S. pressure.

“Foremost, we will discuss maximum capabilities to ensure that Ukraine achieves a just peace,” Zelenskyy said of his talks with Erdogan, adding that the leaders have “good relations.”

Zelenskyy also said: “We see some positions and signals from the United States, well, let’s see tomorrow.”

He didn’t elaborate but tough new American sanctions on Russia’s oil industry, devised to push Putin to the negotiating table, are due to take effect on Friday.

A senior Turkish official initially said that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff would join Zelenskyy in Turkey, but backtracked later in the day and said Witkoff wouldn’t be coming. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity Tuesday because he wasn’t permitted to speak publicly about the arrangements.

Romania and Poland scramble fighter jets
The Ukrainian city of Ternopil sits in a part of relatively peaceful western Ukraine, where many people from the east and south moved to as they fled danger along the front line.

Almost 50 people were injured in Russian strikes on three other Ukrainian regions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it attacked Ukrainian energy facilities and military-industrial targets, including long-range drone depots, in retaliation against strikes by Kyiv on Russian territory.

Two Eurofighter Typhoon jets and two F-16s were scrambled in Romania when a drone entered the NATO member’s airspace during the Russian attacks, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said.

The Polish military said that Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in the middle of the night as a preventive measure. Poland’s Rzeszów and Lublin airports were closed temporarily to prioritize military aviation, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said.

In northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian droned injured 46 people, including two girls, the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, wrote on Telegram. Drones hit several city districts, at least 16 residential buildings, an ambulance station, school and other civilian infrastructure, he said.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ukraine fired four American-supplied ATACMS missiles at the Russian city of Voronezh on Tuesday. All four were shot down, the ministry said, but the debris damaged a private house, an orphanage and a gerontology center. There were no casualties, the ministry said.

Ukraine’s General Staff on Tuesday reported firing ATACMS missiles at Russia without offering details.

AP

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