Ambassador urges South Africans to surrender

OLEXANDER Scherba, Ukraine's Ambassador to South Africa, has issued a stark warning to South Africans caught up in the turmoil of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, urging them to “surrender” rather than engage in the fighting.

- KAREN SINGH

The advice comes after the South African government announced on Thursday that it had received distress calls for assistance to return home from 17 South African men, aged between 20 and 39, who are trapped in Ukraine's war-torn Donbas region.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the men were lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts.

Of the 17 men, 16 are from KwaZulu-Natal, and one is from the Eastern Cape. Ambassador Scherba stated that they learned about the 17 South Africans in Ukraine's Donbas region through news reports.

Scherba expressed the nation's "worry and outrage" regarding this incident.

"We understand that these men were lured to fight against Ukraine on Russia's side. Neither their whereabouts nor the details of their situation are known to us," he said.