Johannesburg - “We supported you and quite frankly, we expect you to support us.”
This was the strong reminder issued to the government of South Africa by Professor Olexiy Haran from the Comparative Politics department at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (UKMA) in Ukraine. He warned South Africa and the world that Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to snuff out the basics of human liberty in Ukraine”.
Haran is part of a Ukrainian civil society delegation which visited South Africa this week to urge the government to use its voice in BRICS to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. Haran added that Putin had a wider goal “to set a precedent for the death of democracy around the world”.
“So, in Ukraine we are fighting not just for our own survival but for democracy everywhere.”
The delegation of Ukrainian civil society leaders included the Center for Civil Liberties, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning NGO and the Ukrainian Department of International Cooperation.
Haran said the purpose of the visit was to discuss the current situation in Ukraine; the impacts of the war on South Africa, and how South Africa can support Ukraine to end the war and to promote partnerships between the two countries.
Russia’s continued illegal invasion which started more than a year ago killed thousands of civilians, destroyed homes and cities and left Ukraine’s economy decimated. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said more than eight million Ukrainians are now refugees and a further 5 million were internally displaced.
The prosecutor general of Ukraine recorded more than 70 000 war crimes in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for ordering the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia. Separately, Ukraine is calling on the international community to support the establishment of a special ad hoc tribunal, to try Russian leaders for the crime of aggression which Haran alleged started as far back as 1944 with the former premier of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin.
Delegation member Oleksandra Romantsova, the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties said: “Russia cannot defeat Ukraine using conventional methods and so targets civilians, using kidnapping, rape, torture and murder to terrorise us. War criminals must be prosecuted.
“South Africa, as a signatory of the Rome Statute of the ICC, and a member of the United Nations General Assembly can help ensure that justice is done by enforcing international arrest warrants and supporting the establishment of a tribunal to try the crime of aggression – the mother of war crimes,” she said. .”
Romantsova added that at the same time, Russia’s actions had devastated the global economy, choking off exports of wheat and grain from Ukraine and causing energy prices to increase dramatically. Despite this, Ukraine remained open for business, with more than 60% of its companies still operating.
Agri SA executive director Christo Van Der Rheede, who met with the delegation, said Ukraine was regarded as the wheat basket of the world and South Africans were also bearing the brunt of the war.
“Ukraine is one of the biggest exporters of sunflower oil in the world. The war is causing major disruptions, Africans are going hungry. Food prices have increased. We need to strengthen trade between SA and the Ukraine,” he said.
While the UN had facilitated the opening of food corridors for the safe transport of goods in and out of Ukraine, the world was feeling the pinch.
Van Der Rheede added that South African farmers relied heavily on fertiliser from Ukraine but would not be drawn on any political interactions between the two countres.
Delegate member Anna Liubyma, director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “We Ukrainians are proud of what we have achieved in our struggle to survive, but we want our country to be known for more than war. And the truth is that Ukraine has so much to offer the world beyond bravery.
“There are so many exciting opportunities across multiple sectors for Ukrainian businesses to work on with South Africa, including agriculture, mechanical engineering and metallurgy.”
Liubyma added that as Ukraine continued to fight for its freedom, its international relations were more important than ever.
“Ukraine is trying to build stronger ties with countries that share its values of freedom, democracy, and tolerance, both to help end the war quickly and to build a brighter and more prosperous future. These are values that the South African people have long fought for in their own country,” she said.
Delegation member meanwhile Romantsova said the Center for Civil Liberties had been documenting crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine since 2014 and was advocating for establishing accountability mechanisms, including international ones for these crimes.
Experts say the escalating tensions in the Black Sea region have also heaped fresh risks on global food markets already struggling with soaring prices, supply-chain disruptions, and a bumpy recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Before the crisis, overall conditions in markets for staple foods looked reasonably favourable and seemed to augur well for softening prices during 2022, even as sharply rising food prices in domestic markets in many developing countries continued to raise concerns about greater food insecurity. The escalation of the conflict is now dipping markets into serious turmoil.
Ukraine and the Russia Federation combined account for around 30% of global wheat exports. The harbour of Odessa and the Black Sea serve as major conduits for international grain shipments from Ukraine, and the country is also among the top exporters of barley, maize, sunflower and other oilseeds. Financial markets reacted immediately, with stock markets sinking and commodity prices soaring. The price of oil jumped past $105 a barrel on February 24.
Disruptions in those supplies and rising prices for oil and gas would further drive up fertiliser costs, and, hence, also food prices. Poor farmers may earn higher incomes from increasing food prices, but most are net consumers of food. In the near term, food prices in world markets should be expected to rise further amid all the uncertainty, and this will add to global food insecurity.
Haran was the founder of UKMA’s Faculty of Social Sciences as well as School for Policy Analysis. He is also research director at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, a leading Ukrainian sociological and analytical think tank.
Haran is a prolific author and a frequent commentator in the international media. For more than a decade he was a member of the Public Consultative Board at Ukrainian MFA and was also a member of the Public Expert Board of the Ukrainian Presidency in 2000-2004 and a member of the Public Council on National Unity of the Ukrainian Presidency in 2015-2019. Previous Ukrainian civil society delegations have made visits to the UN General Assembly in New York, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Brazil and Argentina.
The director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Anna Liubyma, said the damage to infrastructure as a result of the war was in the region of $700 billion and the country’s GDP dropped to 26.6% at the end of 2022.
Read the Russian Embassy’s response here.