The South African Communist Party (SACP) strongly condemns the racism and racial prejudice and disrespectful attitudes unleashed against Africans by state actors and others in Ukraine and its borders with some countries. The reality of racism and racial discrimination meted against Africans in favour of whites being prioritised in the evacuation from the situation in Ukraine involves Africans being maltreated, viewed with distain, approached as if they are criminals and rightless, pushed back, among others, is sickening, to say the least. This should be considered as the tip of the iceberg after pretentions broke loose, exposing the Nazi and white supremacist tendencies that prevail in Ukraine and the countries bordering it in which Africans experienced the contemptuous, racist discrimination and maltreatment. The SACP expresses its solidarity with the affected African people and their families and calls on the African Union and African governments to take active steps within the framework of international law to secure the safety of the African people and ensure that they arrive home alive. The United Nations must not be silent about the racist conduct but must investigate and deal with it in pursuit of its “Fight Racism” programme towards eliminating racism and its material basis.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is the primary aggressor that has caused the conflict in Ukraine through its expansion eastwards, towards Russia. The United States-led imperialist instrument of militarism, NATO, considers Russia to be its strategic adversary. Through its expansion and use of Ukraine as its expansionist ground towards Russia, NATO has engendered the reaction by Russia. The SACP reiterates its call to NATO to stop its expansionism altogether and reverse it, and to all whom it may concern, including Russia and Ukraine, to de-escalate and stop the military confrontation and revert to peaceful means of resolving the dispute. The SACP says no to imperialist war in Ukraine and any other part of the world.

In the same vein, the regime in Ukraine must stop the human rights violations it has systematically been carrying out against the people, more so in the eastern regions. The regime banned the Communist Party of Ukraine and communist symbols in 2015 as part of its so-called “de-communisation” and its human rights violations depriving the affected people of their rights to participate in elections, to express their freedoms of association and expression, and to practice other political rights.