Ukraine looks to rekindle ties with liberation heroes

Ukraine says it is open to engage with members of the liberation struggle who trained and studied in the country in their battle against apartheid to revive their relationship and joint memories about the era.

This emerged during an interview with the Ukrainian ambassador extraordinaire and plenipotentiary to South Africa, Liubov Abravitova, in Pretoria last week.

Ukraine is one of the countries that supported the African struggle for liberation and democracy under the umbrella of the former Soviet Union.

Ukraine supported the African struggle for liberation

The support included arming different liberation movements in sub-Saharan Africa to end apartheid and colonialism in their respective countries, including South Africa.

The Soviet support, along with anti-apartheid solidarity efforts worldwide, contributed towards putting pressure that subsequently forced the white apartheid regime to negotiate with the liberation movement toward 1990 after unbanning the organisations.

Abravitova, who is an ambassador to eight countries in southern Africa, said Ukraine prided itself on having supported the liberation struggles of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, under the umbrella of the former Soviet Union.

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Many of the armed struggles in the Southern African Development Community region were assisted by the Soviet Union, of which Ukraine was part before the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, when each of the former Eastern Bloc countries became a separate state.

Following the Soviet demise, Ukraine obtained its independence or became a separate state in 1991.

Abravitova said many ANC or uMkhonto weSizwe members who received training in Ukraine were still in contact with the embassy in various ways.

ANC/uMkhonto weSizwe members received training in Ukraine

She said most of them did not receive training in the military, but in other aspects in preparation for future freedom and democracy in South Africa.

The same was the case for others groups from other states in the sub-Saharan Africa.

As the embassy, they wanted to revive those bonds as part of strengthening relations with South Africa and Africa.

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She said Ukraine established diplomatic relations with South Africa in 1992.

“There is a significant number of those who studied in Ukraine but not necessarily in military. We know some of the people; some of them are in touch with the embassy. We are undergoing a revolution in our relations with these alumni. During our discussions, some of them would relate their experiences when they were undergoing training and studying in Ukraine.

“We are undergoing an evolution of our relations. We are almost the same age as the two countries,” she said.

Evolution of relations

“While we are developing our own nations and our internal institutions and taking care of our regional security and the development of our economies, Russia changed the facts about our role in Southern Africa.

“They stole the legacy of the 15 members of the Soviet Union who did the inputs to the struggle for democracy in Africa.”

Abravitova said what is important is that Ukraine was one of the strongest in that camp and in that time of providing assistance.

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“These alumni do acknowledge the role of Ukraine. But the Russians tried to take over this legacy,” she said.

“Due to their aggression, we are stating that Ukraine is not Russia and at that time Ukraine had its own chapter of relations with the African countries, which can be acknowledged.

“The story, the history is there, we don’t need to rewrite it. But we are proud to say Ukraine was standing on the right side of history.”

Eager to engage

The envoy said they were open for engagement with the former members who studied in Ukraine so that they could organise discussions, and research projects.

“We would be interested to revive and to fulfil the archives of our historical relations with their memories,” she said.