Eba Kandovazu
NAMIBIA’s Ambassador to Russia, Clemens Kashuupulwa says that no flight tickets would be provided for Namibian students intending to return from Russia and Ukraine, although consular arrangements will be offered to allow students to fly directly to Namibia. He says the embassy has no budget to assist students with flight costs.
Kashuupulwa categorically stated in an interview with the Windhoek Observer that Russia has no intentions to attack Ukraine, urging Namibian students in the two countries to remain calm. According to him, the Namibian embassy has been assured by the Russian government that it has no intention to attack Ukraine. This is despite Russia having deployed more than 100,000 troops at its border with Ukraine.
“What is happening now on the ground is that troops are along the border but their intention is not to attack Ukraine. They made this clear to us a long time ago. The western media is insisting that Russia wants to attack and that’s not true. The stories are lies. The troops are carrying out their military drills and every country has a right to do so. There is no need for students to go back to Namibia because there is absolutely no war,” Kashuupulwa stated emphatically.
He was responding to reports that Namibian students are panicking about claims of war between Ukraine and Russia..
International news agencies reported yesterday that Russia was withdrawing some of its forces from the Ukraine border.
Russia says the troops are stationed there for war exercises with other Russian allies in the region.
“This week Russia started to withdraw some of its troops and the rest will follow suit,” Kashuupulwa said. ”It is nothing like what is being propagated by the western countries and their US allies. The public’s being misinformed. The western media is not even contacting both sides for Russia to give their side of the story. I don’t know why they are doing that, Russia is also stunned. We don’t know why they are just creating rumors and false information,” stated the Namibian ambassador.
Meanwhile, Aljazeera reported today that NATO has urged Russia to prove it is pulling back troops from around Ukraine’s borders, with the military alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg warning of signs that Moscow was massing more forces near its neighbour despite claims of a drawdown.
“It remains to be seen whether there is a Russian withdrawal. What we see is that they have increased the number of troops, and more troops are on the way,” Jens Stoltenberg told reporters yesterday at the start of a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
