The Russian navy brought its Admiral Gorshkov frigate, one of its navy’s flagship vessels. Weeks later, South Africa allowed warships from the Russian and Chinese navies to perform drills off its east coast. South Africa hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks in January, giving him a platform to blame the West for the war in Ukraine. The South African government has stated numerous times it is neutral on the war in Ukraine and wants the conflict resolved peacefully through diplomacy but recent displays of its closeness to Russia opened Africa’s most developed country to accusations that it has effectively taken Russia’s side. In late December, South African Defense Minister Thandi Modise said the ship was handling an “old order” for ammunition, and arms were offloaded, not loaded onto the ship. Steenhuisen’s opposition party had previously raised questions over the appearance of a “mystery” Russian vessel in Simon’s Town. ![]() It returned to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea on Feb. 9 and its transponder signal popped back up on Dec. AP also obtained photos of the ship at the naval base, the name Lady R clearly visible on its stern in both English and Russian. Satellite imagery obtained by AP shows a ship the same length, color and layout as the Lady R docked at the naval base the following day and remained there through Dec. Smugglers often turn them off to hide their movements. Ships are required by international law to keep their transponders on while at sea. MarineTraffic, a service that collects radio and satellite transponder data from ships, tracked the Lady R off the South African coast in early December, but the signal was lost on Dec. for being involved in transporting military equipment for the Russian government. While Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement later Thursday that there was currently “no evidence” to support allegations that arms were loaded onto the Lady R, The Associated Press established that the vessel is tied to a company that was sanctioned last year by the U.S. Despite South Africa’s neutral stance on the war in Ukraine, the Biden Administration was hoping it could still be a key buffer against growing Russian and Chinese influence on the continent. If South Africa is found to be giving Russia military aid, it threatens to fracture the relationship between the United States and a key partner in Africa. “The arming of the Russians is extremely serious and we do not consider this issue to be resolved,” Brigety said in comments reported by multiple South African news outlets. He said it brought into question South Africa’s supposed neutral stance on the war in Ukraine and its calls for the conflict to end. was certain that military equipment was loaded onto the Lady R at the Simon’s Town naval base between Dec. intelligence services before Ambassador Reuben Brigety went public at a news conference in the South African capital, Pretoria, that the cargo was weapons and ammunition.īrigety said the U.S. ![]() ![]() South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said an investigation into the visit by a Russian vessel named Lady R to his nation’s main naval base was already underway behind the scenes with the help of U.S. ambassador to South Africa accused the country Thursday of providing weapons and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine via a cargo ship linked to a sanctioned company that docked secretly at a naval base near the city of Cape Town in December.
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