ANC raises champagne glasses to Russian army, at Russian embassy, as it invades Ukraine
28 February 2022
Note to Editors: An invitation to a cocktail reception hosted by the Russian Ambassador and Russian Defence Attaché is attached here.
On the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - thirteen hours after the invasion had begun, to be precise - the ANC Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, her department’s special advisor, and the Chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), among others, attended a cocktail function at the Russian ambassador’s residence in Pretoria in honour of the Russian Defence Force.
The event, hosted by the Russian ambassador to South Africa, Mr Ilya Rogachev, and the Russian Defence Attaché, Colonel Dmitriy Priimachuck, was boycotted by all NATO member countries. But this did not stop Minister Thandi Modise, her Director General’s special advisor Tsepe Motumi, and the Chief of the SANDF General Rudzani Maphwanya, in full uniform, from clinking glasses and sipping champagne as they celebrated the power of an army that had just invaded its neighbour that very morning.
At a time when the world has chosen to stand united in its condemnation of Russia’s war declaration on a sovereign nation - when the staunchest Putin allies such as the Hungarian Prime Minister and the Czech President have turned against him, and when even China felt it had to abstain from a UN Security Council vote rather than support Russia - our own ANC government could not scramble fast enough to the wrong side of history.