The Ukrainian Association of South Africa (UAZA) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to condemn Russia’s human rights abuses in the occupied areas of Ukraine.
A representative of the association, Katya Fedkima has made this call on the sidelines of an anti-BRICS march held in Durban on Wednesday.
This as the 15th BRICS Summit is being held in the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
The last day of the summit on Thursday also marks 18 months since the Russian invasion.
Fedkima says Ramaphosa cannot say that South African foreign policy is based on respect for human rights, but stay silent about the deportation of 19 000 children from Ukraine to Russia.
“And some parents actually go to Russia and try to get them back, and they can’t find them. Because the Russian Federation changed their identity, it changed their names. Nobody knows the whereabouts of those children. And it’s unacceptable. In the 21st century in the middle of Europe, mass kidnapping, illegal action is happening and that country is still sitting in the UN, that country is still part of BRICS.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls on Russia to exit Ukraine
