South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is welcomed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner in honour of the heads of state and government attending the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia in 2019. Photographer: Kopano Tlape/ GCIS
The Russian Embassy in South Africa has hit back against the claims by US Ambassador Reuben Brigety that South Africa provided weapons to Russia by covertly loading the arms onto the Lady R vessel that docked at a naval base in Cape Town in December last year.
In a statement, the embassy questioned why Russia would even need South African-produced arms and ammunition “matching neither the types nor calibre” of Russia’s armoury.
It also questioned how, if Brigety’s accusations were true, such a “minuscule” amount of arms and ammunition would influence the situation on the battlefield.
The Russian Embassy said it was hypocritical of the US to make such allegations while the US has allegedly been delivering weapons to Ukraine “since as long ago as 2014”.
“The total amount of Western military supplies to Kiev regime exceeded $100 billion (R1.9 trillion) by 2023 and a new batch for $1.2 billion was approved by Washington the other day,” the European embassy said.
“Why doesn’t Ambassador Brigety say a word about these arms being used to attack cities in Donbass, as well as Bryansk and Belgorod regions of Russia daily?
“Why doesn’t he express concerns about these weapons ending up in the hands of terrorists in Europe and all around the world? There’s absolutely no contradiction here for US authorities, heavily dominated by double standards and hypocrisy.”
Following the allegations that South Africa loaded weapons onto a Russian vessel last year, Ramaphosa is establishing an independent inquiry headed by a retired judge to establish the facts.
Ramaphosa used his weekly newsletter again to make known South Africa’s neutrality.
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za
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