The president of South Africa said on Thursday that he believes the war in Ukraine “could have been avoided,” blaming NATO’s decision to continually expand military troops eastward, ultimately leading to the current war, which Moscow calls a “special military operation.” “The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years, that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less instability in the region,” Cyril Ramaphosa said, expressing a view similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking in parliament, Ramaphosa defended South Africa’s approach of not picking sides in the conflict. The country enjoys cordial bilateral relations with Russia, Ukraine, and the West. “Our position is very clear. And I did say that there are those who are insisting that we should take a very adversarial stance and position against, say Russia. And the approach that we …