Ukrainian association to protest against Dirco hosting Russian foreign minister Lavrov

The Ukrainian Association of South Africa will on Monday morning picket against the official visit to the country by Russian foreign affairs minister Sergey Lavrov.

International relations and cooperation (Dirco) minister Naledi Pandor is hosting Lavrov for official talks.

The Ukrainian Association of SA said it will picket peacefully outside the Dirco offices to voice its disapproval.

“The Ukrainian Association of South Africa calls on the South African government to immediately and unequivocally condemn Russia’s colonial war on Ukraine and stop any military and economic cooperation with Russia until the Russian military forces are withdrawn, Ukrainian borders are restored and reparations for the human casualties and infrastructural damages are made in full.

“For 11 months Russia is using military aggression against the sovereign country of Ukraine, threatening the world with a nuclear attack and increasing hunger and poverty on the African continent, all of which violates the UN Charter, human rights, nuclear safety and any moral and ethical norms,” the association said.

It said in the past Ukraine offered refuge to South African anti-apartheid activists and was not silent nor neutral when South Africans were fighting for their freedom.

“Between 1963 and 1965 only, 328 anti-apartheid activists were trained in Odesa, and further financial and moral support was provided. Today Russia, during 11 months of this war, has destroyed thousands of schools, hospitals, power stations, apartment blocks and houses, with estimated damage of at least $100bn [about R1.7-trillion]. It has turned more than 8-million Ukrainian women and children into refugees and has killed and seriously injured more than 1,329 children.”

The association said it hopes Pandor will send a clear message to Lavrov and Russia to:

• immediately remove its military forces from the sovereign territory of Ukraine;
• start paying reparations for the immense human losses and infrastructural damage; and
• start prosecution of more than 58,000 documented cases of war crimes caused by the Russian army under orders from the Kremlin’s authorities.

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