The leader of the Russian army and his South African counterpart discussed "military cooperation" today during a meeting in Moscow.

The information was revealed by the Russian Defense Ministry hours after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa denied US accusations that his country was on Russia's side in the war in Ukraine and had sent arms to help it.

According to the Russian ministry, General Oleg Salyukov, commander of the Russian ground forces, met with the head of the South African army, Lieutenant General Lawrence Mbatha, at the headquarters of the Russian General Command in Moscow.

"The parties discussed issues of military cooperation and the implementation of projects aimed at increasing the combat readiness of the armies of the two countries," reads the Russian statement, quoted by Lusa, adding that, "the meeting between the military commanders resulted in agreements on expanding cooperation between the ground forces in various areas."

According to the South African army, the trip was planned long before the US ambassador to South Africa alleged last week that the country had supplied arms to Russia when a ship under US sanctions made a secret stop at a South African naval base in December 2022.

Responding to the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, who questioned South Africa's neutrality in the war in Ukraine by making the allegations about an arms shipment, the South African President today used his weekly message to the nation to reaffirm South Africa's non-aligned position on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We do not accept that our non-aligned position favors Russia over other countries," Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly message and also hinted that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will visit South Africa for a summit of the leaders of the BRICS economic bloc [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] in August.

However, the Kremlin has not yet confirmed whether Putin will attend the summit.