South African Inquiry Rebuts U.S. Charge on Russian Arms

Author: Editors Desk Source: N.Y Times

September 3, 2023 at 22:12

A government investigation about a Russian ship contradicts U.S. accusations that South Africa provided arms to fight Ukraine, President Cyril Ramaphosa said. But a government report won’t be released, he added.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, late last month at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.Credit...Sergei Bobylyov/TASS, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

An investigation by the South African government has concluded that weapons were not loaded onto a Russian vessel under American sanctions that docked near Cape Town last year, contradicting accusations by U.S. officials that South Africa had provided arms for the war in Ukraine, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.

“The panel found no evidence that any cargo of weapons was loaded for export on to the ship, Lady R,” Mr. Ramaphosa said in a televised address, after an investigation commissioned by him and led by a retired judge.

Mr. Ramaphosa had said that he would not release the entire report to protect classified information, but that a summary would be made public on Monday.

It remains to be seen whether the findings will soothe the relationship between South Africa and the United States, which has reached its most tense period in years in large part because of the dispute over what happened when the Lady R, a commercial cargo ship, docked at a South African naval base under cover of night last December.

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