The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba announced to AFP a “long-term” fight to “revive” Kiev’s relations with Africa and reduce the “grip” of Moscow on this continent based, according to him , on “Coercion, Corruption and Fear”. After decades of oblivion, kyiv has launched an operation of seduction in Africa in the hope of obtaining its support in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which began in February 2022.

“Many years have been lost, but we are going to push forward a Ukrainian-African renaissance, to revive these relations,” Kouleba said in an interview with AFP on Wednesday. “This continent needs systematic and long-term work,” added the minister, who has already made three tours to Africa since last fall. In June, a delegation of African heads of state led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also visited Ukraine.

While “most African countries” still display their “neutrality” in the face of the conflict, “a slow erosion of Russian positions in Africa is underway”, assured the minister, citing Liberia, Kenya, Ghana, Côte d’ Ivory, Mozambique, Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea among Kiev’s new partners on the continent.

“Propaganda and Wagner”

“We don’t want to be another Russia. Our strategy is not to replace Russia, but to liberate Africa from Russian rule,” he stressed.

Mr. Kouleba accuses the Kremlin of using “coercion, corruption and fear” to keep African countries in its fold, while assuring that Moscow had only “two powerful working tools in Africa: propaganda and [ the paramilitary group] Wagner”.

Russia began several years ago an intense rapprochement with Africa, including through the security services provided by Wagner, notably in Mali and the Central African Republic, presenting itself as a bulwark against “imperialism” and the Western “neo-colonialism”.

Kouleba also slams Moscow’s concerns over Africa’s food security as “lies” after it pulled out of a crucial deal that saw 33 million tonnes exported in one year of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, despite the Russian invasion. “Africans have seen that all these stories of Putin about how he cares about African countries are lies,” Kouleba said.

Moscow’s abandonment of this agreement in July raised fears of a rise in cereal prices which particularly affects the poorest countries. The Russian president then promised to deliver free grain to six African countries.

“It is the Ukrainian farmer and the African bread consumer who pay the most” for Moscow’s exit from the deal, Kouleba said.

Stakes “too high”

Speaking about the backbreaking counter-offensive launched against the Russian military since June, the minister said Ukrainian troops were “aiming” to liberate all of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 , “no matter how long it takes”.

According to the leaders in kyiv, this military operation is progressing at a slower pace than expected. It made it possible to retake a handful of small towns but came up against solid Russian defensive lines, made up in particular of trenches and minefields.

Ukraine, whose military and civilian losses are estimated by Westerners at more than 100,000 killed or wounded, is “paying the highest price” in this conflict, the minister admitted. “But as long as the people of Ukraine believe that Ukraine is capable of winning and achieving its goals through military means,” he said, “the struggle will continue. “We are all tired. I am tired and you are tired,” but “the stakes are too high to allow fatigue to determine the nature of our decisions,” Kouleba added.

While he assured that he did not feel pressure from Ukraine’s Western allies to step up its counter-offensive, the minister said he was “a little irritated” by certain comments on the slowness of this operation. “The right approach for those who want it to be fast and bright is to join the [Ukrainian] foreign legion and do it fast and bright,” he said.

While the West has already sent Kiev weapons worth tens of billions of euros, Kouleba stressed the need for even more weapons “until we win”. Ukraine also gave “guarantees” that it would not use Western-supplied weapons on Russian territory, Kouleba said: “There were a few occasions when we made such promises and we hold them. »