kuleba african tour

Ukraine courts Africa and 'Global South' as peace plans proliferate

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Ukraine’s top diplomat tries to counter Russia’s narrative on Africa tour.

“I arrived here and I hear, ‘Russia and Ukraine are one people,’” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said in Senegal on the first stop of his 10-day trip across Africa.

By Elian Peltier and Mady Camara

• Oct. 4, 2022

DAKAR, Senegal — As Ukraine’s top diplomat began a 10-day tour across Africa this week, he said he would attempt to “better explain Ukraine” to his African counterparts, and why Ukraine needs them against Russia’s aggression.

There seems to be much work ahead, based on his first stop, in the West African nation of Senegal.

“I arrived here and I hear, ‘This isn’t our war, the West is fighting against Russia’; ‘Russia and Ukraine are one people’; and ‘Russia attacked you because you were going to become a NATO member,’” said Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, describing conversations with Senegalese officials.

“Russian narrative has been very present here,” he said on Tuesday in a 30-minute conversation with a group of journalists in Dakar, Senegal’s capital. “Now it’s time for Ukrainian truths.”

Whether African leaders and their populations are ready to hear the Ukrainian arguments remains to be seen.

While in recent weeks even the leaders of China and India have expressed concerns about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many African countries have refused to condemn it.

One reason is Russia remains Africa’s largest supplier of weapons and wheat. Allegiance to Moscow among some African leaders harks back decades , when the Soviet Union supported independence movements from Algeria in northwestern Africa, to Guinea, Angola and Mozambique, in the continent’s southeast.

Ousmane Sène, the director of the Dakar-based West Africa Research Center, said many on the continent had not heard of the independent country of Ukraine until a few months ago.

“The country called Ukraine is on African television screens because of the Russian invasion,” Mr. Sène said. “The only ties that many see between Ukraine and Africa, are the consequences of the food crisis in the shopping basket of Senegalese consumers,” he added. “And many think that both Russia and Ukraine are to blame for that.”

None of Mr. Kuleba’s predecessors had done a tour of Africa, Mr. Kuleba said on Tuesday, acknowledging that Ukraine had long neglected the continent.

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, African countries have been urged to take side s, irking many leaders on the continent who have opted for nonalignment.

“This is viewed in the West as Africa supporting Russia, which is not exactly correct,” said Murithi Mutiga, the Africa program director at the International Crisis Group.

Instead, Africa “does not want to be the breeding ground of a new Cold War,” the head of the African Union, President Macky Sall of Senegal, said at the United Nations General Assembly last week.

Mr. Kuleba said he had “a long and honest conversation” with Mr. Sall on Monday.

The Senegalese presidency did not release a statement about the conversation and declined requests for comment.

Mr. Kuleba’s trip to Africa comes more than two months after a similar tour by his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, in which he blamed the food crisis affecting African countries on Western sanctions on Russia.

Even though those sanctions don’t target food products, that narrative has sunk in across Africa and was repeated by Mr. Sall when he met President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in June.

Public views on the war in Ukraine varies widely across Africa’s 54 countries and 1.4 billion people. But it is in West Africa, where Mr. Kuleba started his tour, that Russia has enjoyed the largest rate of public approval.

Mr. Kuleba said he would warn African countries of Russia’s nefarious influence on their societies, reminding them that Russian investments on the continent are dwarfed by those of other countries, including United States, China and European nations.

What Russia has mostly spread in Africa, he argued, was propaganda and conflict. He cited the examples of Mali and the Central African Republic , where Russian mercenaries have killed scores of civilians , and Burkina Faso, where a close associate of Mr. Putin’s praised the latest military coup and Russian flags fluttered when military officers seized power over the weekend.

“If the only investment that Russia does in Africa is to brainwash and to destroy, and this is the kind of influence that African nations want to see,” Mr. Kuleba said, “they’re destroying themselves.”

Elian Peltier is the West Africa correspondent at The New York Times. He joined The Times in 2017 and was previously based in Paris and London. He now lives in Dakar, Senegal. More about Elian Peltier

Mady Camara is a news assistant based in Dakar, Senegal, who began working for The Times in 2020. More about Mady Camara

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Ukraine announces diplomatic push for Africa

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Dmytro Kuleba

Ukraine on Thursday said it would open more embassies in Africa and stage a summit with leaders from the continent, where Russia is also carrying out a diplomatic offensive.

"We have recently adopted our first African strategy and intensified our political dialogue with many countries on the continent," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the African Union's forerunner.

"This year, we are going to establish new embassies in different parts of the continent and plan to hold the first Ukraine-Africa Summit. I invite the leaders of your countries to take part in this important event."

• He added: "We want to develop a new quality of partnership based on three mutual principles: mutual respect, mutual interests, and mutual benefits."

Kuleba is currently on a tour of Africa, where he made an appeal from Addis Ababa on Wednesday to Ukraine's "African friends" to end their declared neutrality in the war.

He was scheduled to visit Rwanda on Thursday. Other details about the tour have not been revealed.

Russia has ties with African countries, including their present-day leaders, that can be traced to the Cold War, when the Soviet Union cast itself as an anti-colonialist defender.

A Russia-Africa summit, the second in the series, is to be held in Saint Petersburg from July 26-29.

In February, 22 of the African Union's 54 member states abstained or did not vote on a UN General Assembly resolution marking the one-year anniversary of the war that called for Russia withdraw from Ukraine.

Two of them -- Eritrea and Mali -- voted against the resolution.

Kuleba in his statement stressed the efforts to unblock Ukraine grain exports, which have been hamstrung by Russia's naval blockade of its ports.

African countries have been badly hit by the inflationary surge triggered by the war, especially in cereals, of which they are major importers.

"An overall of 123 ships with more than three million tonnes of agricultural products have already been sent to the countries in Africa: Ethiopia, Libya, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, Sudan, Tunisia, Somalia, and Algeria, " he said.

"We have already sent six ships with a cargo of 170,000 tonnes of wheat to Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen," he said.

"More ships are being prepared. No family in Africa should suffer because of Russia’s war against Ukraine."

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Ukraine’s Africa Visit Shows Its Fight Against Russia Goes Beyond the Battlefield

As Ukraine seeks to increase international support, Kyiv should focus on building partnerships in the Global South.

By: Heather Ashby, Ph.D.

Publication Type: Analysis

In the days before Russia’s bombing escalation in Ukraine in early October, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was visiting Africa in a bid to garner support and counter Moscow’s propaganda about the war. While much of the Western world has rallied around Ukraine, African states have largely avoided taking sides. For its part, Russia has been on a diplomatic offensive in much of the Global South, lobbying African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries to not join international sanctions and condemnation against Moscow. Indeed, Ukraine’s fight against Russia is not only taking place on the battlefield, but also through ambitious and needed international diplomacy efforts that extend from Europe to the Global South.

Kuleba’s early October trip to Kenya, Senegal, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire was the Ukrainian government’s first diplomatic tour of Africa in decades according to the foreign minister. The Ukrainian government selected these countries because of their strategic importance on the African continent, their votes in the U.N. General Assembly condemning Russia’s invasion, and, particularly in the case of Kenya, the strong and public critique of Russia’s actions within the context of European imperialism. In the case of Senegal, President Macky Sall is chairperson of the important multilateral organization, the African Union.

The trip was cut short by Russian missile strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine. But Kuleba laid the groundwork for future efforts to counter Russian propaganda and positive to neutral perceptions of Russia across the African continent, build greater international support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression, and advance partnerships with African governments focused on areas of mutual interests.

An aspect of Kuleba’s tour that makes Ukraine’s potential partnerships with African countries so important is to increase international pressure on Russia to maintain the export of Ukrainian grain to stave off food shortages in countries where it is most needed. The grain deal brokered by the U.N. and Turkey has faced recent challenges with Russia suspending its participation last week only to reverse course a few days later on November 2 after international pressure. 

Challenging Russian Propaganda

As it has through much of the world, Russia has sought to advance its interests in Africa for years through concerted disinformation and election interference campaigns . From front organizations intervening in elections to growing Russian-state funded media engagement in French to target many African countries, Russia’s activities on the continent extend beyond arms sales and military cooperation.

A goal of Kuleba’s trip was tackling and confronting Russian disinformation in Africa. Part of Russia’s multi-layered disinformation campaign about its war against Ukraine focuses on blaming NATO and the West for the conflict, suggesting that Moscow is confronting a threat to its security, not engaged in a war of aggression. In his meeting with Senegalese Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall, Kuleba did not hesitate to confront Russia’s false justifications for the war. “The Senegalese may be surprised if they listen to Russian propaganda,” Kuleba said. “Russia wanted to make believe that [the war is because] Ukraine wants to be a member of NATO. Finland wants to be a member. And yet Russia did not attack it.”

Russian propaganda has also tried to erase the distinction between Ukraine and Russia as independent countries with their own histories, culture and language. Kuleba challenged this narrative, asserting that “Russia also believes that we are one people. This is not true … The language we speak is not the same. We have a different culture and a different people.” If Ukraine hopes to dent the effectiveness of Russian propaganda across Africa, it must continue this messaging campaign.

Building Partnerships

Kuleba’s visit has potential to help the Ukrainian government chart a strategic path for developing relationships with African countries. However, “Ukraine has never been a player in Africa … [it] does face a steep uphill climb to garner support for a war so removed from African realities or African geopolitical interests,” said Kamissa Camara, a Sahel expert at USIP and former Malian foreign minister. “While Africans are being urged to take sides in the Ukraine-Russia war, protracted wars on the African continent — such as the war in Tigray or the war in Eastern Congo — continue to make victims by the million,” she added.

As the votes in the United Nations General Assembly on Russia’s war against Ukraine have demonstrated, it is important to mobilize international support beyond the West for the Ukrainian government’s fight. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, there has been a series of votes in the U.N. focused on condemning Russian aggression and acknowledging the illegality of its war. Despite 140 nations voting to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine, over 20 African countries abstained or did not vote during the emergency session of the U.N. General Assembly at the end of March. Similarly, many African countries did not vote, abstained from voting, or voted against suspending Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.

While the votes were largely symbolic, they still carried weight for understanding how countries in the Global South view Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“While most African states are opposed to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, they have been very reluctant to openly condemn Russia for its aggression or to take sides in a conflict that puts them in the middle of a new Cold War between the United States, its Western allies and Russia,” noted Ambassador Johnnie Carson, a senior advisor at USIP who also served as the top U.S. envoy to Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Kuleba’s Africa trip was necessary to begin a more sustained effort by the Ukrainian government to engage with Global South countries, particularly those in Africa.

Next Steps for Ukraine and African Countries

Along with attempting to strengthen bilateral relationships, the Ukrainian government should work to engage African countries through relevant multilateral forums such as the African Union. That will help to maximize Ukrainian engagement with Africa and further demonstrate its long-term commitment to building relationships.

“No one or two African countries, or collection of African countries have enough influence to pressure or persuade Russian to stop its aggression in Ukraine, but African countries can play a bigger role by joining the international consensus in openly and officially condemning Russia's actions and in supporting U.N. and Western sanctions against Moscow's behavior,” noted Carson, who also served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for the bureau of African affairs.

Ukrainian engagement with African countries can help to push Russia to maintain its involvement in the grain deal that is so critical for many Global South countries. Many African and Middle Eastern countries rely heavily on Ukrainian grain imports. So, it was important for Kuleba to emphasize and reiterate Ukraine’s efforts to address the food insecurity many countries are experiencing because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine — and that Ukraine understands what Africans are going through. “Each Russian rocket is not only hitting Ukrainians, it also harms the quality of life for Africans,” he said.

Ukraine is planning an ambitious agenda for its potential partnerships with African countries. During Kuleba’s tour, he discussed organizing a Ukraine-Africa summit to deepen relations. Already there is no shortage of topics for such a gathering which could touch on food security, trade, and building a more inclusive international system that protects smaller countries from acts of aggression and reinforces protection of territorial integrity.

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Ukraine's Kuleba Tours Africa

• Carol Van Dam Falk

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African analysts say Ukrainian diplomat Dymtro Kuleba is on a 10-day tour of the continent where he hopes to garner support against Russia for the war in Ukraine. For more on Kuleba’s chances of garnering anti-Russia sentiments in Africa, VOA’s Carol Van Dam spoke to expert Ousmane Sène.

Ukraine FM: Africa in 'Same Boat' as Kyiv

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Kuleba to make the first tour of African countries in history of Ukrainian diplomacy

Ukrainian foreign affairs minister will tour African countries 3–14 October to consolidate support in light of the attempt to annex Ukrainian territories. In addition, the minister will seek to strengthen the role of Ukraine as a guarantor of world food security, deepen cooperation in the field of education, promote Ukrainian IT products, in particular, the Diia platform, creating new opportunities for Ukrainian exports using the capabilities of the Nazovni system.

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Ukraine Foreign Minister Urges African Nations to Ditch Neutrality in Russia War

• By Associated Press

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is urging African countries to abandon their stances of neutrality towards his country's war with Russia.

Many African countries have refused to take sides in the European conflict, with several abstaining from votes at the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russia's invasion. Ethiopia is one of them.

Speaking in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on Wednesday, Kuleba said Ukraine was "very upset that some African countries chose to abstain" and called them to lend Ukraine diplomatic support "in the face of Russian aggression."

"Neutrality is not the answer," he told reporters. "By being neutral towards Russian aggression against Ukraine, you project neutrality to the violations of borders and mass crimes that may occur very close to you."

Russia has built a substantial presence in several parts of Africa, where Russian private military contractor Wagner is active, and recently held joint military drills with South Africa. Russia plans to hold an Africa-Russia summit in July.

Kuleba also called on African countries to endorse the "ten-point peace formula" proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in December and emphasized Ukraine's wish to build "mutually beneficial" relations with Africa, based on trade in energy, technology and pharmaceuticals.

"We have to remind each other of the importance of Africa to Ukraine and the importance of Ukraine to Africa," Kuleba said, admitting that Ukraine's previous attitude towards the continent was characterized by "inertia."

Both Ukraine and Russia supply a significant amount of grain to Africa.

Kuleba is currently on an African tour that also includes visits to Morocco and Rwanda. In Ethiopia, he held discussions with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat and Azali Assoumani, the president of the Comoros and current chair of the continent-wide body.

Kuleba made his first trip to Africa in October when he visited Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Kenya. The trip was cut short after Russia launched strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure.

His Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, has also been active in shoring up ties with African countries since the Ukraine war broke out, touring the continent once in 2022 and making at least two visits so far this year.

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Ukrainian FM starts his second Africa tour

MOSCOW. May 22 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmitry Kuleba has announced the start of his second tour of African countries.

"Morocco. At the beginning of the second tour of African countries, the Moroccan partners invited me to visit the beautiful mosque of Hassan II in Casablanca - the largest functioning mosque in Africa. This is a real work of art on which more than 10,000 Moroccan artists and craftsmen worked for seven years. And what counts most is that the doors of this mosque were cast from Ukrainian titanium," Ukrainian media outlets quoted Kuleba as saying in a social media post.

He said that it is the first visit by a Ukrainian foreign minister to Morocco since the establishment of bilateral relations.

Kuleba said that during his first Africantour in the fall of 2022, he had visited countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, and this time he intends to visit "states in all parts of the continent - from north to south."

The minister said that his tour pursues three goals. "The first goal is to encourage as many African countries as possible to join the implementation of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky's 'peace formula'. The second goal is to secure support for the uninterrupted export of Ukrainian grain. And the third goal is to create new opportunities for Ukrainian business," he said.

Africa is interested in Ukrainian goods and services, for instance foodstuffs, medications, high tech equipment, education services, the experience of digital transformation and of strengthening information resilience, diplomatic experience, and interaction within international organizations, he said.

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Africa: Ukraine's Kuleba Tries to Change Africa's Narrative On the War

Ducking the crossfire doesn't mean staying neutral - Africa should take independent, principled positions that support the UN Charter.

The protracted struggle between Russia and Ukraine (and its Western allies) to win African nations' hearts and minds continued last week with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba's continental tour.

He visited Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Kenya on a planned 10-day tour. But he cut it short to go home to deal with the massive missile strikes by Russia on Ukrainian cities on 10 and 11 October. Kuleba's African trip followed earlier ones by his American and Russian counterparts, as well as France and Germany's leaders, as Africa becomes a battleground for influence.

Kuleba was under no illusions about the difficulty of his mission. Senegalese officials had told him, 'This isn't our war, the West is fighting against Russia,' 'Russia and Ukraine are one people,' and 'Russia attacked you because you were going to become a NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] member,' he said.

'Russia's narrative has been very present here,' he added . 'Now it's time for Ukrainian truths.' Over the next week, Kuleba attempted to counter Russia's three 'lies' as he put it to African journalists in a 13 October online briefing. He noted that Russia had first attacked Ukraine in 2014 when Ukraine's policy was neutrality not NATO membership. And if the intention to join NATO was a provocation to war, why had Russia not attacked Finland?

What Kyiv fears most from Africa is indifference, neutrality or 'non-alignment'

The second Russian 'lie' was that Russia and Ukraine were actually one country, and so Russian President Vladimir Putin could impose his will on Ukraine. 'In fact we are very different countries with our own languages, cultures and histories. Imagine your neighbour coming to you and saying your language, culture and history do not exist. Your statehood is a mistake.'

And the third was that 'Russia wants peace but Ukraine refuses to negotiate.' On the contrary, Kuleba insisted that Russia had rejected Ukraine's many proposals to resolve differences. He said all of Russia's peace plans were smokescreens for ultimatums for surrender and the extinction of Ukraine.

Kuleba also dismissed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's main message on his African tour in July that global shortages of grain and fertiliser - which hit Africa hard - were mainly the fault of Western sanctions against Russia. Kuleba blamed them on Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports and noted that Russia's bombardment had raised grain prices further. He promised Kyiv would send 'boats full of seeds for Africa.'

This was the first visit by a Ukrainian foreign minister to Africa. Kuleba said some officials told him most Africans had never heard of his country before the war. He promised to step up relations and announced that Ukraine would open an embassy in Ghana - the country's 11th in Africa.

30 African states backed the latest UN resolution - two more than supported the 2 March decision

Kuleba promised digital and cybersecurity assistance, agro-technology, diplomatic training and educational bursaries to African countries. He confirmed that Ukraine was planning a 'large-scale Ukraine-Africa conference' next year - presumably partly to counter the second Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg.

Kuleba thanked his hosts in the four countries for the moral support they offered Ukraine so far in the war: Côte d'Ivoire for 'standing with Ukraine ' and Senegalese President Macky Sall for 'strongly supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity.'

In February, Ukraine was delighted when Kenya advised Putin at the United Nations (UN) Security Council to respect Russia's border with Ukraine and abandon attempts to turn the clock back to Russia's glorious imperialist past. Kenya generally aligns with the democratic West on such issues, so perhaps that wasn't surprising.

Kuleba seemed especially grateful to Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo for telling the UN General Assembly last month that 'every bullet, every bomb, every shell that hits a target in Ukraine, hits our pockets and economies in Africa.' That epitomised the attitude that Ukraine hoped for from Africa.

Africa should support the UN Charter which forbids using force to change another country's borders

What Kyiv fears most from Africa is indifference , neutrality or 'non-alignment'. So Kuleba told the African journalists on Thursday that countries like South Africa, which abstained from General Assembly resolutions condemning Russia's invasion, were 'abstaining not against Ukraine but against war crimes.'

Only 28 African states supported the first UN General Assembly resolution on 2 March this year, condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine. It was significant that three of Kuleba's stops were among those 28 countries. The exception was Senegal, which had abstained. Kuleba probably included Dakar because Sall is the current African Union Chairperson and was involved in grain diplomacy to lift the Russian blockade on Ukraine's Black Sea ports.

But on Thursday, Kuleba professed to be very pleased with his African safari. All four countries visited voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution on 12 October that condemned Russia for its 'illegal so-called referendums' in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia and its 'attempted illegal annexation' of them.

Kuleba would have been particularly pleased that Senegal shifted its vote from abstaining in March to supporting this one. Significantly, the Angolan government did the same, stepping out of line from the five other former liberation movements in Southern Africa, which all abstained. In total, 30 African states backed the resolution - two more than supported the 2 March decision.

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How will that go down in Ukraine and the West? There have been some impulses in Western countries to use more than persuasion to get African countries 'onside'. The US Congress is sitting on controversial legislation that would punish African governments and companies for doing business with dodgy listed Russian oligarchs on the continent. But ISS Today hears the bill will die in the Senate.

And in July, a leaked confidential report revealed European Union (EU) frustration with many African states' neutrality, and questioned whether the EU should consider making its considerable foreign aid to the continent dependent on African support for 'EU values'.

Could African states pay a price for not backing Ukraine and the UN Charter? That's not yet clear. Some European states fear that punishing African governments could backfire - driving them from neutrality into more active support for Russia.

Ideally, African states should take a stand in support of the UN Charter, which forbids the use of force to change the borders of another country. Ducking the crossfire in this war doesn't mean staying neutral. It means taking principled positions independently of the wider geopolitical implications.

Peter Fabricius , Consultant, ISS Pretoria

Read the original article on ISS .

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Tuesday 23 May 2023

Kuleba to Africa

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Last year Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, cut short his first tour to Africa since Russia’s invasion. Officially, he left because Russia launched a swathe of missile and drone strikes on critical Ukrainian infrastructure. Unofficially, there were suspicions he was failing to make headway with several African leaders who have close ties with Russia. This week, Kuleba is trying again , travelling first to Morocco in another push to counter Russia’s influence in the Global South (a term that includes countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia). His tour follows some intense diplomacy by Ukraine’s Zelensky at the Arab League of Nations and then at the G7 summit in Japan. Zelensky reportedly made progress with India’s Narendra Modi – who so far has refused to condemn the invasion. But things didn’t go so well with Brazil’s Lula, who told Reuters that Zelensky didn’t show up to a bilateral meeting.

Tuesday, 07 May 2024, 12:56

FM Kuleba plans to go on second African tour next year

"During the second African tour, which we are preparing for the first quarter of 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs plans to visit Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya. We are currently focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, which no one in Ukraine has dealt with and in which Russia now has a strong position," Maksym Subkh, Ukraine’s Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa, told ZN.UA in an interview.

According to the Special Representative, Ukraine’s cooperation with this region earlier was limited to sporadic contacts, one-time visits or telephone conversations, as a result of which Ukraine has ten embassies across Africa – five in North Africa and five in Sub-Saharan Africa – while Russia has more than 40 embassies on the continent.

As reported, on October 3, Dmytro Kuleba began the first ministerial tour of African countries in the history of Ukrainian diplomacy which was supposed to last until October 12. However, the minister had to suspend the tour on October 10 due to Russia's massive missile attack on Ukrainian cities.

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