South Africa was on Friday due to embark on a 10-day routine joint military exercise with Russia and China along its eastern coast amid criticism at home and abroad.

The drills, just days before Moscow marks one year since its invasion of Ukraine, have been slammed as tantamount to endorsing the Kremlin’s onslaught on its neighbour.

A Russian military frigate was docked in Cape Town’s harbour earlier this week for what a Russian diplomat called “refuelling” on its way to Durban. The exercises, dubbed “Mosi” meaning “smoke” in the local Tswana language, are scheduled to take place between February 17 and 27 off the port cities of Durban and Richards Bay.

They are the second in a series of routine drills that Pretoria hosts with foreign nations, including Russia. However, the latest will coincide with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

More than 350 members of South Africa’s armed forces will take part in the exercises with an aim of what the military said last month to sharing operational skills and knowledge with Russia and China.

South Africa has refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine which has largely isolated Moscow on the international stage, saying it wants to stay neutral and prefers dialogue to end the war. But the continental powerhouse has come under attack for hosting the joint drills.

Tim Cohen, an editor at the Daily Maverick newspaper in South Africa said that the event is being held on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, so it’s clearly a propaganda event aimed at bolstering support for the invasion and that Pretoria’s pretense of being in favor of a negotiated solution to the Ukraine crisis dissolves with this exercise.