Exclusive: A Look Into John Steenhuisen’s Fact Finding Trip in Ukraine, Where He Went and Who He Met Up With
- Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen decided to visit the war-torn country Ukraine on what he called a fact-finding trip
- Steenhuisen says there are two main reasons for his visit which include seeing the damage caused to Ukraine by Russian troops
- Briefly News received exclusive photographs from the DA leader's trip as well as his six-day itinerary
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LVIV - John Steenhusien, the leader of the Democratic Alliance recently went on a six-day fact-finding mission to Ukraine to see the damage caused by Russian troops since the invasion a few months ago.
Steenhuisen has also explained that his visit to Ukraine was important because the war has direct economic effects on South Africa. The DA leader's excursion began on 1 May and ended on 7 May with his return to Cape Town.
Source: UGC
In a media briefing, Steenhuisen says he went to Ukraine for two reasons, one was to see for himself the impact of the war and the second was to represent South Africa.
"I wanted to see for myself what was happening there. I wanted to hear the accounts first-hand, from the people living through this nightmare.
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"I didn’t want to have to rely on a filtered, sanitised version of events, and I didn’t want to have any doubts over the accuracy or truthfulness of what we’re seeing on TV," said Steenhuisen.
Briefly News received exclusive photographs from Steenhusien's excursion. We have put together a few of these photographs that also show who the DA leader had the opportunity to meet while he was in Ukraine.
John Steenhusien visits the Ukrainian city of Lviv
On the first day of the trip, Steenhuisen met up with the mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovyi at the Rynok Square. He later went to meet with the Governor of Lviv Regional State Administration, Maksym Kozytskyy.
At the end of the day, Steenhusien met up with Pavlo Sheremeta, a Governor of Lviv Regional State Administration.
Source: UGC
Source: UGC
John Steenhusien visits Ukraine's capital Kyiv for three days
On the second day of his trip, Steenhuisen made his way to the capital city of Ukraine, Kyiv where he met up with a number of political figures. On 2 May, Steenhuisen visited the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre and also had a radio interview
On 3 May, Steenhuisen visited cities Bucha, Irpin and Gostomel. He also visited the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv before meeting up with Olexandr Feldman MP, Co-head of the Inter-Parliamentary Relations Group of the Parliament of Ukraine and South Africa.
Source: Getty Images
Source: UGC
Source: UGC
Source: UGC
On the last day in Kyiv, Steenhuisen met with Oleksii Ryabchyn, a Ukrainian politician, scientist and journalist. The DA leader also had meetings set up with Oleksandr Merezhko before having lunch with Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU and former Deputy Prime minister for European and EuroAtlantic integration of Ukraine.
Steenhuisen also meet up with the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko.
Source: UGC
Steenhuisen also later met with Zhan Beleniuk, Tokyo Olympic gold champion and politician. Beleniuk was also the first black member of the Ukrainian Parliament when he joined in 2019.
Source: UGC
John Steenhuisen pressures the ANC to align with Ukraine following his fact-finding trip to the war-torn country
Briefly News previously reported that the leader of the Democratic Alliance John Steenhuisen plans to insist that South Africa aligns itself with Ukraine despite its neutral stance on the Russian war in the country.
He returned to Cape Town from his fact-finding mission in the war-torn country and said the government can no longer sit on the fence when there is a war ravaging. Steenhuisen said he visited the country to witness the destruction first-hand. He added that it was important for him to represent South Africa to Ukrainians because no one else was doing so.
Addressing South Africans on Monday 9 May, he said he spoke to Ukrainians and was amazed by the unity they showed amid the war.
Source: Briefly News
