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Ukraine minister woos African support

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Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has called for African countries to help secure sea routes for farm exports from his country, calling it a matter of survival for both sides. “We are in the same boat in this crisis,” he told reporters in a Zoom briefing.

Ukrainian foreign minsiter Dmytro Kuleba has called for African countries to help secure sea routes for farm exports from his country, calling it a matter of survival for both sides.

“We are in the same boat in this crisis,” he told reporters in a Zoom briefing, hosted by the US department of state on Thursday.

Kuleba, who accused Russia of “playing hunger games with the rest of the world”, said Ukraine would like Russia to end its blockade of grain exports from the Black Sea ports of Odesa, Pivdennyi, Mykolayiv and Chornomorsk.

This could only happen under the auspices of the UN and with Russian co-operation, but Kuleba said Russia has proven that it could not be trusted.

He has asked that African states help exert pressure on Russia, which invaded and attacked Ukraine in February in contravention of international law. “African countries do matter and they do influence Russia’s position,” he said.

Kuleba accused Russia of deliberately trying to squeeze Ukraine out of the African market, using the rising grain prices as a result of the conflict to their advantage.

In 2020 Ukraine exported $2.9bn worth of agricultural goods — mainly grains and sunflower oil — to Africa, while Russia’s exports to the continent amounted to $4bn. Major importing countries were Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Algeria, Kenya and SA.

Kuleba said a lack of income for farmers would stop them investing in the next production cycle, which would devastate Ukraine’s economy.

The harvest season is set to start in July and Ukraine, the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter, is already short of storage space.

Apart from food security, Kuleba said African countries should support Ukraine in the conflict because Russia had been treating its neighbour like a “colony” for 300 years, and African countries “should understand very well how it feels to be attacked by a power that cannot abandon its idea of its supremacy over a nation”.

Kuleba’s briefing came after Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to the AU on Monday, when he told leaders that multilevel talks to unblock Black Sea ports had been unsuccessful.

Zelensky’s virtual address was attended by only four presidents — Alassane Ouattara from Ivory Coast, Mohamed al-Menfi from Libya, Denis Sassou Nguesso from Congo and Senegalese president Macky Sall, who is also AU chair.

SA did not attend the meeting because President Cyril Ramaphosa had other engagements, and he had previously spoken by phone to Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a government spokesperson told Business Day.

SA has thus far controversially maintained a “neutral” stance in the UN on the conflict, citing its ambitions to help facilitate peace talks.

The support of African countries is diplomatically important in this conflict, Steven Gruzd, head of the Russia-Africa Project at the SA Institute of International Affairs told Business Day.

The continent was “split down the middle on UN votes on Ukraine in March. Ukraine is hoping for Africa’s support to tip the balance in its favour,” he said, but added: “I am not sure they will get it.”

Gruzd said anti-Western sentiment is widespread in Africa, and Russia is blaming Western sanctions for the grain crisis.

“Many African countries do not want to be forced to pick sides, so will resist cajoling by politicians,” he said.

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2022-06-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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