A Ukrain­ian human rights NGO Truth Hound is set to host a series of events to expose war crimes in Ukraine since Rus­si­a’s full-scale inva­sion in 2022.

Truth Hound is accom­pa­nied by the Project Expe­dite Jus­tice, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa.

Sama­ra Pearce has the image of a clas­sic Leica Mark II 35mm cam­era tat­tooed on her chest, close to her heart. It speaks of her love of pho­tog­ra­phy and of Ukraine.

She acci­den­tal­ly stum­bled upon her his­tor­i­cal link to the doc­u­men­ta­tion of the suf­fer­ing of Ukraine and acquired her voca­tion in 2012.

As Ukraine marks three years since Rus­si­a’s full-scale inva­sion, the Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa has reaf­firmed its unwa­ver­ing sup­port for Ukraine’s Pres­i­dent Volodymyr Zelen­skyy and Ukraine’s fight for sov­er­eign­ty, democ­ra­cy, and glob­al secu­ri­ty. With a stag­ger­ing 140,000 war crimes doc­u­ment­ed, the asso­ci­a­tion stress­es that Rus­si­a’s aggres­sion pos­es a sig­nif­i­cant threat not only to Ukraine but also to inter­na­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty. To dis­cuss this fur­ther, Elvis Presslin spoke to Dzvin­ka Kachur, Hon­orary Pres­i­dent of the Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa

The Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa and the Ukrain­ian glob­al com­mu­ni­ty stand firm­ly with Pres­i­dent Zelen­sky and the peo­ple of Ukraine as they con­tin­ue their hero­ic defence against Russ­ian aggres­sion. Ukraine’s fight is not just about its own sovereignty—it is about defend­ing democ­ra­cy, glob­al secu­ri­ty, and the right of nations to exist free from tyran­ny.

Diplo­ma­cy is essen­tial in pre­serv­ing and restor­ing peace. Pres­i­dent Volodymyr Zelen­sky, elect­ed by a deci­sive major­i­ty (73%) in a demo­c­ra­t­ic vote, rep­re­sents the peo­ple of Ukraine in their pur­suit of a just and last­ing peace. While elec­tions in Ukraine are pro­hib­it­ed under mar­tial law, Ukraini­ans will con­tin­ue hold­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions as soon as the Russ­ian mil­i­tary aggres­sion is stopped.

On 24 Feb­ru­ary 2025, the world marked three years since rus­sia launched its unpro­voked full-scale inva­sion of Ukraine—an esca­la­tion of the war that began in 2014 with the mil­i­tary annex­a­tion of Crimea.

Despite Ukraine’s extra­or­di­nary resilience in reclaim­ing near­ly 50% of the ter­ri­to­ries occu­pied since Feb­ru­ary 2022, russia’s bru­tal­i­ty con­tin­ues to inten­si­fy.

Pro-Ukrain­ian protests on Sun­day and Mon­day were inter­rupt­ed by sup­port­ers of a rival of Ukrain­ian Pres­i­dent Volodymyr Zelen­skyy in Pre­to­ria, and by pro-Rus­sia sup­port­ers in Dur­ban.

The two protests fol­lowed one in Cape Town on Fri­day and were organ­ised by the Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa (UAZA). The protests came three years after the Russ­ian inva­sion of Ukraine on 24 Feb­ru­ary 2022.

Dozens of Ukraini­ans and their sup­port­ers gath­ered out­side the Russ­ian con­sulate in Cape Town on Fri­day to protest against Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine.

Organ­ised by the Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa (UAZA), the pick­et marked three years since Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine on 24 Feb­ru­ary 2022, and ten years since the ille­gal annex­a­tion of Crimea.

South African and Ukrain­ian experts sug­gest next steps for the Africa Peace Mis­sion

Guest: Dzvin­ka Kachur — research fel­low at the Cen­tre for Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Tran­si­tions at Stel­len­bosch Uni­ver­si­ty (South Africa) and co-founder of the NPO ‘Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa’

Guest: Olek­san­dra Romantso­va — Exec­u­tive Direc­tor at the Cen­tre for Civ­il Lib­er­ties

The Insti­tute for Secu­ri­ty Stud­ies host­ed a sem­i­nar on Lessons from the Ukraine war, and African gov­ern­ments’ role in resolv­ing the con­flict. South African and Ukrain­ian experts focused on region­al secu­ri­ty, nuclear safe­ty, and the forcible depor­ta­tion of children.Co-founder of the NPO ‘Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa’, Dzvin­ka Kachur, and Dr Elvis Fokala from the Cen­tre for Human Rights in the Fac­ul­ty of Law, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pre­to­ria weigh in.