PRETORIA – Exactly a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of February 24, which he termed a "special military operation", the Ukrainian Ambassador to South Africa said her country continues to seek an elusive ceasefire.
“Today we mark a very sad date: it’s exactly one month since full-scale war of Russia started in Ukraine and the world is watching curiously the developments and its praying and working to get peace back into Ukrainian land,” Ukraine’s Ambassador to South Africa, Liubov Abravitova, said on eNCA.
“The numbers of those who are trying or those who have already fled from Ukraine are extremely high – it’s more than 3.5 million people. The major cities are severely affected by missile attacks.”
Abravitova said the humanitarian situation in areas like Mariupol, a city in south-eastern Ukraine, was worsening.
“In some of the cities such as Mariupol, we have thousands of people staying without food or water – without any humanitarian corridors where we could deliver the basic needs to these areas or to evacuate the people from (there),” she said.
The Ukrainian top diplomat has thanked South African organisations which have joined people across the world in the outpouring of humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine.
“We also would want to acknowledge the work of South African non-governmental organisations that are providing us with humanitarian aid. First of all, there is Aspen Pharmacare which recently donated life-saving medicines for 62 000 surgeries in Ukraine,” she said.
“Also the organisation, Gift of the Givers; we are very grateful for them. I think that already the assistance they directly provided in Ukraine for the humanitarian needs is around R2 million.”
She said the global efforts to support Ukrainians “are really huge and we are grateful to all the partners who are providing humanitarian assistance”.
Al Jazeera reported yesterday that in the month since the invasion began, more than 10 million people have been displaced, several Ukrainian towns and cities have been besieged and bombarded beyond recognition, and hundreds of civilians have been killed.
IOL