Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, demanded on Wednesday that some African countries abandon their “neutrality” in response to Russia’s invasion of his nation.
Kuleba was in Ethiopia during a regional tour to rally African nations to support Ukraine against Russian “aggression” fifteen months into the bloody conflict.
“We speak with our African friends, trying to explain to them that neutrality is not the answer,” he said in English at a press conference in Addis Ababa, home of the African Union.
“By being neutral towards the Russian aggression against Ukraine, you project your neutrality to the violation of borders and mass crimes that may occur very close to you, if not happen to you.”
A resolution passed by the UN General Assembly in February calling on Russia to leave Ukraine was opposed by 22 of the African Union’s 54 members, who either abstained or did not vote.
Eritrea and Mali, two of them, cast no votes for the measure.
Kuleba met with the leaders of Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed, the AU Commission’s Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the Comoros’ Azali Assoumani, who is currently serving as the organization’s chair, during his visit.
“I know that there are countries and people in Africa who sympathize (with) Russia because they connect Russia with the support these countries were receiving during the Soviet Union times and the role of the Soviet Union in the decolonization of Africa,” Kuleba said. “This Russia is very different. I think the biggest real investment of Russia in Africa today is the Wagner mercenaries,” he said, referring to the private military group fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.
He asserted that neither a list of nations giving humanitarian aid to Africa nor a list of big investors on the continent included Russia.
He added:
Kuleba remarked that he was the first foreign minister from Ukraine to travel to Ethiopia, the continent’s second-most populous nation.
“Unfortunately our relations with African countries did not receive proper attention in our foreign policy for years and we lost a lot,” he added.
When it came to ensuring food security, the minister promised that breadbasket Ukraine was on Africa’s side. The continent had been particularly hard impacted by rising costs and supply disruptions brought on by the Russian invasion.
