NGO says South Africans can relate to struggles Namibians faced
To demonstrate this, activists in Cape Town staged a protest outside the German consulate.
The day is meant to remember the more than 50,000 Herero and close to 10,000 Nama people who were killed by German military forces between 1904 and 1908.
Under German rule, land was also confiscated from the indigenous people.
Bettie Fortuin, from the Working On Farms project, said that South Africans could relate to the struggles Namibians faced.
"That's why we are in solidarity with the Namibians and also Palestine because we know, we still feel it inside ourselves to be evicted, and to be murdered and to be chased away from your homeland."
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eNCA
a day ago
- eNCA
Putin, Zelenskyy set for peace summit after Trump talks
WASHINGTON - Russian and Ukrainian presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy looked set for a peace summit after fast-moving talks Monday between Donald Trump and European leaders that focused on the key issue of long-term security guarantees for Kyiv. Hopes of a breakthrough rose after Trump said he had spoken by phone with Russian counterpart Putin - whom he met in Alaska last week - following a "very good" meeting with the Europeans and the Ukrainian president at the White House. It would be the first meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders since Moscow's brutal invasion nearly three and a half years ago, and comes as Trump tries to live up to his promise to quickly end the war. Trump, 79, wrote on his Truth Social network that "everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine." AFP | Mandel NGAN "At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy," Trump said. Trump said he would then hold a three-way summit with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Putin had agreed to the bilateral meeting within the next two weeks, but there was no confirmation of a date or location. - Zelenskyy 'ready' to meet Putin - Zelensky confirmed to reporters outside the White House he was "ready" for a bilateral with bitter foe Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine has led to tens of thousands of deaths. In Moscow, a Kremlin aide said that Putin was open to the "idea" of direct talks with Ukraine. The Ukraine war has ground to a virtual stalemate despite a few recent Russian advances, but Trump's summit with Putin last Friday failed to produce any ceasefire. Zelenskyy then rushed to the White House to meet with Trump after the US president increasingly pushed the Ukrainian leader to make concessions to Russia. The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Commission and NATO then announced that they would be coming too, in a pointed show of support. AFP | ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS Zelenskyy also met one-on-one in the Oval Office with Trump in their first encounter in the heart of the US presidency since their acrimonious blow-up there in February. The Ukrainian president said the meeting was their "best" yet, with little of the tensions that erupted when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him in front of TV cameras for not being "grateful" for US support. Trump even complimented Zelensky on his black jacket, after the Ukrainian was criticized by right-wing media because he failed to change his trademark war-leader's outfit for a suit during the February visit. - 'Security guarantees' - The US president meanwhile said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, adding that Putin had agreed to them despite ruling out Kyiv's long-held dream of joining the NATO alliance. AFP | ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS Trump said the guarantees "would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America." NATO chief Mark Rutte told reporters at the White House it was a "very successful meeting" with "the president really breaking the deadlock." "Today was really about security guarantees, the US getting more involved there, and all the details to be hammered out over the coming days," he said. The Financial Times, citing a document seen by the newspaper, said Ukraine had undertaken to buy $100 billion of US weapons financed by Europe in return for US guarantees for its security. Zelenskyy later spoke to reporters about a $90 billion package, and said Ukraine and its allies would formalise the terms of the security guarantees within 10 days. The presence of the European leaders however also underscored continuing nervousness about whether Trump will pivot towards Putin as he has on a number of occasions. Trump had pushed Ukraine ahead of the meeting to give up Crimea and abandon its goal of joining NATO - both key demands made by Putin. French President Emmanuel Macron called Monday for stepping up sanctions against Russia if Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine. Finnish President Alex Stubb said Putin was not "to be trusted." AFP | Roman PILIPEY Germany's Merz meanwhile said Ukraine should not be forced to surrender its Donbas region to Russia in talks. "The Russian demand that Kyiv give up the free parts of Donbas corresponds, to put it bluntly, to a proposal for the United States to have to give up Florida," Merz told reporters.
Daily Maverick
a day ago
- Daily Maverick
Germany's Merz says Putin, Zelenskiy to meet within next two weeks
This meeting, to which Vladimir Putin agreed during a phone call with Trump, would take place at a yet-to-be-determined location, the German chancellor said. 'We don't know whether the Russian president will have the courage to attend such a summit. Therefore, persuasion is needed,' said Merz, who was part of a delegation of European leaders who travelled to Washington on Monday to lend support to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During a break in the meeting, 'the American president spoke with the Russian president on the phone and agreed that there would be a meeting between the Russian president and the Ukrainian president within the next two weeks,' he told reporters. Trump had agreed to extend another invitation to a three-way meeting afterward, so that negotiations could 'truly begin', added Merz. The German chancellor said Trump was impressed that the Europeans had come with a unified front, and their discussions with the U.S. administration would now turn to details on security guarantees for Ukraine. 'It is absolutely clear that the whole of Europe should participate,' said Merz, praising Trump's announcement that the United States is also prepared to provide them.
Eyewitness News
3 days ago
- Eyewitness News
European leaders to join Zelensky in US for Ukraine talks with Trump
European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Washington on Monday seeking an end to Moscow's invasion, after President Donald Trump dropped his push for a ceasefire following an Alaska summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, more than three years after the Kremlin ordered the invasion, had been one of Trump's core demands before the summit, to which Ukraine and its European allies were not invited. But after the meeting yielded no breakthrough, Trump ruled out an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine -- a move that would appear to favour Putin, who has long argued for negotiations on a final peace deal. Ukraine and its European allies have criticised Putin's stance as a way to buy time and press Russia's battlefield advances. The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to try and bend Trump's ear on the matter include German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Ahead of the visit, von der Leyen said on X she would welcome Zelensky for a meeting in Brussels on Sunday which other European leaders would join by video, before accompanying the Ukrainian leader on his US trip at his "request" and with "other European leaders". The German government, which confirmed Merz was going, said it would try to emphasise "interest in a swift peace agreement in Ukraine". Trump had briefed Zelensky and European leaders on his flight back from Alaska to Washington, saying afterwards that "it was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a peace agreement which would end the war". Ceasefire agreements "often times do not hold up," Trump argued on his Truth Social platform. But Zelensky has appeared unconvinced by the change of tack, saying on Saturday that it "complicates the situation". If Moscow lacks "the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement (something) far greater -- peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades," he said on social media. European leaders for their part have expressed unease over Trump's outreach to Putin from the outset. 'HARSH REALITY' Trump expressed support during his call with Zelensky and European leaders for a proposal by Putin to take full control of two eastern Ukrainian regions that Russia largely controls in exchange for freezing the frontline in two others, an official briefed on the talks told AFP. Putin "de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas," an area consisting of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, the source said. In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control. Several months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia in September 2022 claimed to have annexed all four Ukrainian regions even though its troops still do not fully control any of them. "The Ukrainian president refused to leave Donbas," the source said. Trump notably also said the United States was prepared to provide Ukraine security guarantees, an assurance Merz hailed as "significant progress". But there was a scathing assessment of the summit outcome from the European Union's top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who accused Putin of seeking to "drag out negotiations" with no commitment to end the bloodshed. "The harsh reality is that Russia has no intention of ending this war any time soon," Kallas said. ZELENSKY BACK IN WHITE HOUSE The diplomatic focus now switches to Zelensky's talks at the White House on Monday with the European leaders in tow. The Ukrainian president's last Oval Office visit in February ended in an extraordinary shouting match, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly berating Zelensky for not showing enough gratitude for US aid. In an interview with broadcaster Fox News after his sit-down with Putin, Trump had suggested that the onus was now on Zelensky to secure a peace deal as they work towards an eventual trilateral summit with Putin. "It's really up to President Zelensky to get it done," Trump said. Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine rages on, with both Kyiv and Moscow launching attack drones at each other Sunday. In his post-summit statement in Alaska, Putin had warned Ukraine and European countries not to engage in any "behind-the-scenes intrigues" that could disrupt what he called "this emerging progress".
