International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor says South Africa is against the invasion of one country by another.
She says Pretoria believes the conflict between Russia and Ukraine conflict should be resolved through negotiation.
Pandor was answering questions in the National Council of Provinces and has dismissed accusations by some opposition parties that South Africa is neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
She says, “We are not neutral, we abhor war, we believe war does great harm, we don’t support invasion of the territorial integrity of another country by any other UN member state. We’ve made that clear in all our statements, that’s not neutrality. We believe there should be negotiation, we believe the United Nations must play a key role in such a process.”
Independent Counter-Terrorism and Organized Crime Expert David Otto on Ukraine marking Independence Day six months after the invasion:
Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now
Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of firing rockets from around a captured nuclear power plant, killing at least 13 people and wounding 10, in the knowledge it would be risky for Ukraine to return fire.
FIGHTING
* Russia launched 80 Grad rockets at the town of Marhanets across the Dnipro river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Tuesday, Valentyn Reznychenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said, adding that more than 20 buildings were damaged.
* There was no immediate comment from Russia, which has accused Ukraine of shelling the plant, something Kyiv denies.
* Ukraine will respond to the Russian shelling of Marhanets and needs to consider how to inflict as much damage on Russia as possible to end the war quickly, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
* Two US newspapers cited unnamed Ukrainian officials as saying Ukrainian special forces had carried out an attack on Tuesday on an air base on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, destroying military aircraft.
* Moscow had said the explosions were detonations of stored ammunition. Kyiv has not taken responsibility for the attacks.
Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.
DIPLOMACY
* China’s ambassador to Russia called the United States the “main instigator” of the crisis in Ukraine, accusing Washington of backing Moscow into a corner with repeated expansions of the NATO defence alliance and support for forces seeking to align Ukraine with the European Union.
ECONOMY
* Ukraine’s overseas creditors backed its request for a two-year freeze on payments on almost $20 billion in international bonds, a move that will allow it to avoid a debt default.
* Ukraine’s prime minister says the move will save the country almost $6 billion, helping stabilize its economy and strengthen its army.
* The second commercial ship to arrive in a Ukrainian port since the start of Russia’s invasion has docked in the port of Chornomorsk and is ready to load grain, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said.
* The United Nations expects a “big uptick” in ships wanting to export Ukraine grain through the Black Sea after transit procedures were agreed and a goal of 2-5 million tonnes a month is “achievable,” a senior UN official said.
* Russia’s pipeline monopoly Transneft said oil transit via the southern leg of the Druzhba pipeline had resumed, RIA news agency reported, almost a week after it stopped, affecting supplies to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
