Listen: Some 50 South Africans in Ukraine seeking help: SA ambassador
South Africa's ambassador to Ukraine says more than 50 South Africans there, mostly students, have reached out to them for help in getting to safety.
"But it's not just South African students, also students that are especially from Africa, that do not have representation in Ukraine. I dealt with about 84 of them so altogether, about 110 students," says ambassador Andre Groenewald.
READ: SA calls on Russia to withdraw troops from Ukraine
Russia began an air, sea and land offensive on Ukraine on Thursday.
Speaking to Newswatch from his home in Kyiv, Groenewald said they were working with his counterparts in Poland and Romania to assist citizens who wanted to leave.
"They agreed that we will send through the names and passport numbers of the students and that they will then forward it to the borders where they are crossing to facilitate that crossing.
ALSO READ: Ukraine wants SA to impose sanctions on Russia
"I have also spoken to the Romanian ambassador who agreed that the students can come and apply for visas at the Romanian border. Obviously, there is other families that are also moving - myself and another diplomat we were there with local staff and we were still doing consulate work handing passports back of people that applied for South African visas and who are now wanting to get their passports back because they need to travel out of this area."
Listen below:
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