What: A peace­ful protest against the delay of South Africa to con­demn Russ­ian inva­sion in Ukraine

Where: Out­side the DIRCO in Cape Town (120 Plein St, Cape Town City Cen­tre)

           Out­side the DIRCO in Pre­to­ria (Tam­bo Build­ing, 460 Sout­pans­berg Rd, Rieton­dale)

Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion in South Africa (NPO) calls on the South African Gov­ern­ment to imme­di­ate­ly con­demn the Russ­ian war in Ukraine, and to stand with the South African Con­sti­tu­tion that respects Human Rights, Democ­ra­cy and the Inter­na­tion­al Law.

In six days of war, Rus­sia has turned our whole coun­try into a ruin. The hos­pi­tals, kinder­gar­dens, homes were bombed. Mil­lions of Ukraini­ans are under per­ma­nent shelling by the Russ­ian army. There are already 352  civil­ians, out of which 14 chil­dren, are killed, 1684 civil­ians, out of which 116 chil­dren, are wound­ed and over 500 000 of Ukraini­ans have been turned into refugees,  thou­sands of for­eign­ers, includ­ing from South Africa, had to stop study­ing or work­ing and have had to flee the coun­try.

Russ­ian inva­sion is not only about mil­i­tary aggres­sion, it is also about dis­in­for­ma­tion. Rus­sia is using a dif­fi­cult African past to once again manip­u­late and cause suf­fer­ing instead of peace.  Ukraini­ans in South Africa are con­demn­ing racism around the world, in every coun­try. Racism and dis­crim­i­na­tion is a crim­i­nal offence in Ukraine. But human­i­tar­i­an crises cre­ate more pres­sures for all for­eign­ers, elder­ly, and chil­dren as the nor­mal sys­tems of pro­tec­tions stop work­ing.

Russ­ian mis­siles and tanks instead are non-dis­crim­i­na­to­ry. They kill every­one, of all races with­out excep­tion.

For six days, Ukraini­ans are defend­ing our coun­try risk­ing their lives to defend their home. For six days we are wait­ing to hear the voice of South Africa that open­ly con­demns Russ­ian inva­sion and stops pre­tend­ing that it is a Rus­sia-Ukrain­ian con­flict, but acknowl­edges UN doc­u­ments clear­ly stat­ing that Rus­sia is vio­lat­ing the Inter­na­tion­al Law.

We call South African gov­ern­ment to stand on the side of the prin­ci­ples of sov­er­eign­ty, free­dom and democ­ra­cy and to:

1)      Open­ly con­demn Russ­ian aggres­sion on Ukraine

2)      Allow visa-free entrance to SA for Ukraini­ans whose fam­i­ly mem­bers are tem­porar­i­ly or per­ma­nent­ly liv­ing in South Africa

3)      Stop eco­nom­ic coop­er­a­tion with Rus­sia

4)      Cease any coop­er­a­tion or pro­cure­ment in the nuclear sec­tor with Rus­sia

5)      Use all the polit­i­cal instru­ments such as BRICS and bilat­er­al rela­tion­ships to STOP Russ­ian aggres­sion

6)      Denounce the visa-free regime with the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion

7)      Cease the RT and Sput­nik license on the ter­ri­to­ry of South Africa

Russ­ian inva­sion is an attack on sov­er­eign­ty, free­dom, democ­ra­cy, the civ­il pop­u­la­tion and the insti­tu­tions of a free coun­try. 

#Stand­WithUkraine #Sto­pRus­sianAg­gres­sion

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact us: +27 64 619 22 37 Olga (Cape Town); +27 76 236 58 24 Anas­ta­sia (Pre­to­ria) or [email protected]; www.uaza.co.za

Ukrain­ian Asso­ci­a­tion of South Africa (NPO # 189 – 705) unites South Africans and Ukraini­ans liv­ing in South Africa and aims to build a dia­logue between the two coun­tries.