WAR IN UKRAINE
‘You know what it means to defend your freedom’ – Melitopol mayor responds to ANCYL’s praise of Russia’s ‘sham’ referendums
The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, responds to the ANC Youth League visiting his Russian-occupied city to observe a Russian referendum asking its people if they wish to be part of Russia. ‘My message to your government is to stand on the side of light and truth, and support Ukraine.’
The Youth League of the ruling ANC (ANCYL) sent several office bearers to Russia-occupied eastern and southern Ukraine late in September to observe the controversial referendums organised by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government to ask the citizens of the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kerson and Zaporizhzhia if they wished to be incorporated into Russia. The referendums were widely denounced as a “sham”, a ploy by Moscow to legitimise its military annexation of large parts of the four provinces which was a fait accompli.
Russia nevertheless claimed that the people of all four provinces had voted overwhelmingly for incorporation, despite other claims that many had been forced to vote under the eyes of soldiers. Many reports also indicated that the voter turnouts had been extremely low.
Khulekani Skosana, described as the head of the ANCYL’s international relations subcommittee, observed the voting in the Russia-occupied city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia province, according to Russian TV.
He was interviewed by a Russian TV reporter and offered “kudos” to Putin’s government for giving the people of Zaporizhzhia the opportunity – which he said they had long awaited – to express themselves on their right to “self-determination”.
Read in Daily Maverick: “‘A beautiful, wonderful process’ — ANCYL defends sending observers to Russia’s sham referendums in Ukraine”
Addressing himself to Russia, Skosana said “we are with you as we fight for self-determination. And we are demanding a multipolar world. We are not going to be forcefully led by the West.”
“We believe in democracy. And this process has proven that this is a process for the people and by the people. So, quite an amazing feat… We will go back home and tell our people this has been a beautiful, wonderful process. Congratulations to the people of Zaporizhzhia!”
This week the UN General Assembly will vote on a resolution to condemn the referendums and Ukraine is hoping South Africa will at last drop its “non-aligned” stance on the war and support the resolution.
Read in Daily Maverick: “ANC Youth League lends credibility to sham Moscow referendums in Ukraine”
Daily Maverick asked the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, for his view on Skosana visiting his occupied city and thereby legitimising – and then further eulogising – a process of annexing it to Russia.
Federov (34) was not in Melitopol at the same time as Skosana. He is in exile in the unoccupied part of Zaporizhzhia.
On 11 March 2022, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, Federov was arrested and abducted by the Russian military as it occupied Melitopol and was charged by the self-proclaimed pro-Russian neighbouring “Luhansk Peoples Republic” for allegedly helping the banned nationalist organisation, Right Sector, in committing terrorist crimes against civilians in Donbas. The following day (Saturday, 12 March), former city council member Halyna Danylchenko was installed by the Russian occupation forces as “acting mayor”.
On that Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Fedorov was being tortured and requested his release. On 16 March, Fedorov was freed from captivity in exchange for nine captured Russian conscripts.
Fedorov responds to Daily Maverick
Here, Fedorov responds to Daily Maverick’s questions about Skosana and others observing Russia’s referendums, and talks more generally about how his city has suffered under Russian occupation:
“Let me share with you the current true situation on the temporarily occupied territories, the legal status of a sham referendum conducted by Russian occupiers, including Zaporizhzhia region and Melitopol at the end of September and the status of so-called international observers.
“Before the Russian invasion, Melitopol was a modern European city with a population of 150,000. Less than a half of the population remain in the city nowadays. After seven months of occupation, the humanitarian situation in the city is extremely difficult and is getting worse every day. There is no Ukrainian mobile phone and television, no access to immediate medical help or necessary medicines. The price of medicines that are available in pharmacies is twice higher than in Ukraine. The situation with food and hygiene products is similar. Approximately 70% of the city’s small and medium-sized enterprises have suspended their work. Almost 80% of the population lost their jobs due to mass unemployment and the occupation – people cannot buy the most necessary things today.
“Gas supply was disconnected in the city three months ago and the situation with the provision of communal services is worsening. There are problems with uninterrupted electricity supply because of Russian continuous shelling of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant. Problems with electricity affect the water supply which comes from artesian springs. Lack of gas makes central heating impossible for private apartments and public places like schools, hospitals and kindergartens.
“Those who stayed in the city became hostages of the occupiers. Every minute, Melitopol residents are facing the threat of looting, rape or even death. Those who want to leave the city have to queue for long days as sometimes the queue may include 4,000 people.
Read in Daily Maverick: “Why Africa must care about Ukraine’s struggle for freedom”
“Southern parts of Ukraine, including Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, always have been and will be Ukraine. Russians were not welcomed from the very first days of a full-scale military invasion. During the occupation, Melitopol has not surrendered itself to the occupiers. Initially, these were multithousand rallies in support of Ukraine: people stopped enemy tanks with their bare hands right in the central streets of the city. Then, the majority of Melitopol citizens categorically refused to cooperate with the occupiers. Moreover, Melitopol partisans are well known outside Ukraine as they continuously destroy Russian logistics, military bases and headquarters and oppose the plans of the Russian occupiers.
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“In such a terrible situation, occupiers under guns held the sham referendum. Needless to say that neither Ukraine nor the entire civilised world have recognised that referendum. Moreover, neither Ukraine nor any other international organisation provided mandates to so-called international observers for monitoring the sham referendum. Those who acted as so-called observers at the sham referendum have seriously violated both Ukrainian and international election legislation. According to the fake Central Election Commission of Zaporizhzhia region, 959 voters took part in the seventh part of the polling stations. It is easy to calculate that a total of (959 x 7) = 6,713 voters voted at all polling stations. Since the number of voters is one million 329 thousand voters in Zaporizhzhia region, the turnout at the pseudo-referendum was approximately 0.5% of all voters in the region. Ukraine defined the sham referendum as void and considers these so-called observers as violators.
“While the sham referendum does not create any legal consequences, since the territories are temporarily occupied, the Ruscists may intimidate and force people to be involved in further illegal actions such as acceptance of Russian citizenship, mobilisation or expropriation of private property if the owners refuse to re-register it under Russian law. Such further illegal actions will result in more aggravated humanitarian disaster, making temporarily occupied territories a grey zone.
“Today, Ukrainians have united to defend their country, their dignity, independence, freedom, democracy, equality and human rights: everything that is called Western civilisational values. The courage of Ukrainian defenders, the courage of the people and the unity of the nation in the fight against the enemy amaze the world. We appreciate [that] international partners support us much to stand and win and overcome the horror of war. Truth will win and Ukraine will win.
“The people of South Africa also had to defend their freedom, dignity and human rights. I am sure that you know and feel what it means to defend your homeland and your right to live in an independent country. My message to your government is to stand on the side of light and truth, and support Ukraine.” DM
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It would make for fascinating political manoeuvring should an opposition party lay a complaint with the office of the PP based on reputational damage of DIRCO’s refusal to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine and whether the state president misled parliament and the country when he claimed he was busy mediating… because he has been about as active in doing so as he has been in the much vaunted claims of placing business interests in blind trusts to avoid conflicts of interest.
I once again have to state that this article is completely one sided. These views come straight from the MSM. Just a simple question. What is NATO doing on Russia`s borders and why were they looking to offer Ukraine membership?
Surely you are not suggesting that Ukraine did not then and does not now have the democratic right o belong to whatever organisation it wants to?? Your weird take is that Russia can do a pre-emptive strike and attempted annexation of any country it feels like on the basis of what or who that country wishes to associate with – good grief. What is one sided about the article? Do you dispute the number of citizens left in the city? Do you believe that there was a real free and fair election held? Apart from Russian State news and TV, every other independent news outlet in the world have continuously and clearly shown that Russia completely unjustifiably invaded a neutral democratic country under an extremely pathetic excuse for its own empire building aims. Any other characterization of the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine is straight from the mouth of TASS and possibly SACP.
Wow, your “alternative view” seems to ignore the facts. How do you explain Finland and Sweden seeking NATO membership. Maybe it’s Putin’s fault NATO is on its borders considering the way he has invaded a sovereign country and attempted to steal their territory?
I wanted to explain the facts to Brian Echosa, but then I saw that Colin Louw has already done so. Thanks Colin.
And of course, thanks to Peter Fabricious for more great journalism!
I think you must study the map of Europe: all of the independent East European countries, share a border with Russia, and many of them are EU members and also of NATO. A democratic Ukraine is certainly free to ask for NATO membership (which takes a long time) instead of asking protection from Putin’s kind of dictatorship in Russia (where the opposition leaders are jailed).
Wow. Donald Trump much?
Self-determination, eh? Does this kid even know what it means? I wonder what his thoughts are about the Western Cape self-determination quest?
‘You know what it means to defend your freedom’
No Sir, in fact they don’t. ANCYL members are (supposed to be) 35 years of age or younger. This means the older members were 7 years old when we became a democracy. Most were likely born afterwards …
PS: Up yours, DIRCO
Nothing the ANC does (and I mean this almost literally) makes any sense or promotes any common good. It has now become the most corrupt, the most incompetent, the most uncaring and most backward political organisation in the democratic world
Well, the national party propaganda told us that black people would not be capable of running South Africa, and a lot of us didn’t believe them. It seems the anc did 🙂
They are more like a mafia, no interest in good governance.
ANc youth league – a disgusting bunch of little runts !
Well, that’s saying it exactly like it is! I have no hideous enough words for them myself.
I have no words to fully express the utter disgust that I feel for these ANCYL dupes. They live in a free society, with access to any media – anywhere. How, then, to wrap one’s head around their breathtaking ignorance about what has happened in Ukraine?
What an absolute idiot – what one would expect of a moronic ANC cadre. So wayward, thick as a plank and dripping with hypocrisy. How low can the youth league sink – to the sewerage where they belong.
The ANC are morally bankrupt garbage. There are no words to define my contempt.
The ANC doesn’t stand for freedom in the Ukrainian sense, but greed and corruption in the Russian sense. If actual freedom and prosperity of the people was the ANC’s creed, that tradition is dying out with its elders. Today’s ANC have more in common with Putin’s kleptocracy and double-speak than the values of liberation and freedom it was founded on. All the ANCYL knows is to not bite the hand that feeds it. They would make excellent members of Russia’s parliament. And they would have supported the Nats in 1948 because they are that corruptible.
It is not really surprising that ANCYL should come out in support of the Russian occupation of parts of Ukraine. Their erstwhile political leader has now become a “Freedom Fighter” and is at the spearhead of those that wish to destroy our once beautiful country – whilst he uses any opportunity to increase his personal wealth. The world metropole which Johannesburg once was is the latest “kill” of these men who are hell-bent on turning this country into Zim #2. Sadly – Madiba is no longer there to show them the right path! Even though his spirit should be there for them to see… How sad.
Who paid for the clown’s plane ticket? Find that and you find the real messenger. It goes without saying that Skosana has no capacity for any legitimate thought. The whole exercise is so blunt that its actually laughable.
A Luta Continua !! I need to find a new refrain which more clearly represents the morally corrupt stance of this nationalist govt.
Mr Fedorov, please give no further credibility to this group of “wannabe” Niehaus. They were still in nappies when the liberation movement successfully negotiated a settlement with a previously morally corrupt nationalist govt (generally a white one, then). The current leaders are no more than thieves and enablers of corruption. Their ancestors are looking at them with such disappointment. Some run around in military fatigues – lol – never having fired a shot in anger, nor defended their land with guns: yes, a political and economic settlement defused a civil war with huge potential for massive bloodshed. BUT, be very clear about this – never think that most South Africans support Russia – 30 million do not know of Russia (check our education system), and the other 20 million are informed well enough to know the Russians bring mayhem, rape, pillage and neo-industrialization. The balance are merely recipients of T-shirts and shopping bags, selling whatever little moral compass and integrity they may have had, to “todays” political party. Keep fucking those Russians up !!
SA will still vote non-aligned – and if I’m wrong , I’ll apologise on this forum to Naledi
The Muppets have more credibility than the ANCYL… Animal, Kermit and Miss Piggy were at least professionals
Mondlane said most of South Africa supports Russia’s actions and believes that it is necessary to “protect its citizens and fight for freedom”.
What utter garbage – only a few completely useless , blinkered, irrelevant individuals such as yourselves (who have contributed absolutely zero to this country) do.
Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukraine defended herself and “protected her citizens” by all the means at her disposal. What is it that you don’t understand about simple facts ? Just as well Ukraine threw Russia out of Kiev because if not we probably would have had these same fools promoting a “referendum” there – Bucha atrocities, hospitals bombed in Mariupol etc all swept under the carpet.
If you want an example of “fighting for freedom” , there is no better example in our modern world than the Ukrainian army. And without ambiguity, let me end “Slava Ukraini”.
To dignify the political hobos of the ANCYL task team by even seeking to engage with them is to really scrape the bottom of the barrel. It was desperation by the Russian thugs who invited and funded these political hobos and fed them with alcohol. They observed nothing because they were drinking all the time! The interview granted by the SABC was a political instruction from Luthuli House and you could see that these boys still require to go to school by their pronunciation of words and poor grammar. The three ANCYL mercenaries who played with fire actually represent their jackets and families as they do not represent any elected structure. They are an appointed battering ram of an ANC faction and for South Africans to crack their skulls with ANC drivel it is not necessary. The ANC government foreign policy represents the ANC not the country. Nobody is bound by the ANC foreign policy because it does not have the consensus of South African political formations, civil society, religious bodies and the general public. It serves not the interests of the country but financial interests of the ANC and the stomachs of the three clowns who need to return to school as a matter of urgency as they are an embarrassment to themselves and the youth of the country.
I have a few concerns.
1 Russia is continuously shelling the nuclear plant – As reported by most mainstream outlets, Russia took control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant in March of this year. So are we to believe that the Russians are so crazy that they have been shelling themselves since March. Yet this is reported over and over without question. Logic would suggest that maybe Ukraine is shelling the plant. But you are not allowed to say that.
2 Sham elections – In 2014 The DPR and LPR declared independence form the government in Kiev. There has been a war for the last 8 years because of this. This is somehow never mentioned in the context of the war since Russia invaded. In so far as at least the DPR and LPR regions is concerned it is not inconceivable to think that a large number of people in these regions DO NOT want to be governed by Kiev.
3 (following on from 2)Recognition of the DPR and LPR is against international law – Maybe; but Kosovo. Putin is following the exact precedent set by the west. When Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, the US recognized it and it was declared legal in the international court of justice. Now it hosts the second largest US military base in the Balkans.
4 It is never established whether he helped Right Sector or not. If true, it casts doubt over the whole article. Google Right Sector for yourself.
You can say anything about Russia these days as long as it is negative.
It won’t be questioned.
I agree wit your sentiments. There is much bias on the reporting of this conflict. Nevertheless, the ANCYL presence in a sham referendum is seriously anti democratic. Under far different circumstances I would agree to a referendum in parts of the Eastern Ukraine. The ANCYL, like their elders are rather challenged individuals. They are a fight waiting on a cause. They have no relevance, but sure are looking for some.
It looks as if you are guilty of selective commentary on the issues you highlight. How about a Google before posting . I haven’t been able to find any reports of Russia shelling the plant that they control rather that shelling in the area has damaged critical infrastructure.
On the issue of Ukranian pro-Russian separatists and the war since 2014 – to what extent I wonder have Putin’s minions been at work fomenting the unrest and desire to join Russia?
If I recall, the Dutch have a fairly good case linking these Russian backed separatists to the shooting down of the Malaysian airways flight a few years ago. There is evidence that the Russians were aware of or assisted with the weapons that were used. So, Putin engaged in state sponsored terrorism, as he is still doing in Ukraine right now.
The ANCYL are a disgrace. How do you begin to think that a referendum involving 0,6% of the population involved and in an occupied territory, is free and fair. Blind anti West self destructive thinking – the product of ANC lack of education.
Mayor Fedorov, I would not worry about the ANCYL which has struggled to have any resemblance of authority and influence for some decades now. most, if not all, have no idea of what the “struggle”was about – they were either not born or were still in nappies. their visit to your country was disingenuous and added no value to the Government’s cowardly stand against Russia and Putin as indeed they add no value to South Africa.
Well done ANCYL
DM is captured
Of course this will not get past the fact checkers South African style.
The reason for no links allowed is that the truth must be suffocated
Well done DM for publishing Sheda’s words. She’s obviously paying at least R200pm to be an Insider and will no doubt grow and develop her way with words as she engages more and more via this channel. It may be a little while… !!