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Ukraine’s Top Diplomat Tries to Counter Russia’s Narrative on Africa Tour


DAKAR, Senegal – As Ukraine’s top diplomat begins a 10-day tour of Africa this week, he says he will try to “explain Ukraine better” to his African counterparts and why why Ukraine needs them to resist Russian aggression.

It looks like there’s more work ahead, based on his first stop, in the West African nation of Senegal.

“I came here and heard, ‘This is not our war, the West is fighting against Russia’; ‘Russia and Ukraine are one people’; and ‘Russia attacked you because you were about to become a NATO member’, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, described conversations with Senegalese officials.

“The Russian story is very present here,” he said Tuesday during a 30-minute conversation with a group of journalists in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. “Now is the time for truth Ukraine.”

Whether African leaders and their people are willing to listen to Ukraine’s arguments remains to be seen.

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

One reason is that Russia remains Africa’s largest supplier of weapons and wheat. Loyalty to Moscow by some African leaders spans decadeswhen the Soviet Union supported independence movements from Algeria in northwest Africa, to Guinea, Angola and Mozambique, in the southeastern part of the continent.

Ousmane Sène, director of the Dakar-based Center for West African Studies, said many people on the continent had not heard of the independent nation of Ukraine until a few months ago.

“The country called Ukraine has appeared on African television screens because of the aggression of Russia,” Mr. Sène said. He added: “The only relationship that many people see between Ukraine and Africa is the aftermath of the food crisis in the basket of Senegalese consumers. “And many people think that both Russia and Ukraine are responsible for that.”

Mr. Kuleba said on Tuesday that none of his predecessors had made a trip to Africa, admitting that Ukraine had long forgotten the continent.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, African countries have urge to take sidess, to the dismay of many leaders on the continent, who chose not to appoint.

“This is seen by the West as Africa backing Russia, which is incorrect,” said Murithi Mutiga, Africa program director at the International Crisis Group.

Instead, Africa “doesn’t want to be the birthplace of a new Cold War,” the head of the African Union, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, 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 president did not release a statement on the conversation and declined a request for comment.

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

Although those sanctions did not target food products, the story spread throughout Africa and was repeated by Mr. Sall when he met Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in June.

Public opinion on the war in Ukraine varies widely among the 54 countries and 1.4 billion people of Africa. But it was in West Africa, where Mr. Kuleba began his tour, that Russia enjoyed the highest public approval.

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

He argues that what Russia mainly spreads in Africa is propaganda and conflict. He cited examples of Mali and Central African Republicwhere Russian mercenaries have the number of civilians killedand Burkina Faso, where a close associate of Putin praised the latest military coup and Russian flag fluttering when military officers took power over the weekend.

“If the only investment that Russia makes in Africa is brainwashing and destruction, then this is the kind of influence that African countries want to see,” said Kuleba, “they are self-destructing,” said Kuleba. destroy yourself”.

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