Key points
- Ukraine is ready to help African countries in the fight against Russian mercenaries, offering military training, combat experience and assistance to refugees.
- Ukraine has increased the number of its diplomatic missions in Africa and has sent significant food aid through the Grain from Ukraine program to support African countries.
- Kyiv has opened eight new embassies in Africa, focusing on food aid and countering Russian disinformation.
Ukraine has expressed its readiness to help African countries in the fight against Russian mercenaries. Kyiv offers military training, combat experience and assistance to refugees in regions of Russian influence.
This was reported by Channel 24, citing Reuters.
How Ukraine plans to help African countries
Journalists note that Mauritania, located on the western edge of Africa, has probably become a transit point for Ukraine's increasingly global struggle with its enemy, Russia.
Kyiv's new embassy in the capital Nouakchott – one of eight opened in Africa since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – has been overseeing the delivery of food aid to refugees from neighboring Mali.
Kyiv is also offering to train Mauritanian soldiers amid tensions between Mauritania and Mali, where Moscow is backing government forces against Tuareg rebels.
Russian soldiers and mercenaries are known to guard presidents in several West and Central African countries, while Russian mining companies have a foothold in the Sahel region, which includes Mali.
In an interview in Kyiv, Ukraine's special representative for the Middle East and Africa, Maksym Subh, said Russia's military presence in the Sahel had “undermined the stability” of the region.
Ukraine is ready to continue training officers and representatives of the armed forces of Mauritania, to share technologies and achievements that it has achieved on the battlefield against Russia, Subh said.
He also added that Ukraine had previously conducted such exercises before Russia's full-scale invasion.
Earlier, the Kremlin stated that Russia would expand cooperation with African countries, particularly in sensitive areas such as defense. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia is the largest supplier of weapons to Africa.
The Special Representative of Ukraine also noted that since 2022, Kyiv has opened 8 out of 10 new embassies announced in 2022 on the continent. Thus, our country has increased the number of missions in Africa to 18.
Subh said Ukraine wants to convince African countries that its fight against Russia has parallels with their own efforts to overcome the legacy of European colonialism.
What Ukraine is currently focusing on in its aid
Despite the offer of military training, Ukraine's wartime efforts to win the favor of its African allies focused heavily on food.
Kyiv claims to have sent nearly 300,000 tonnes of aid, distributed through the World Food Programme under an EU- and US-funded programme called “Grain from Ukraine”.
Aid from Ukraine has reached 8 million people in 12 countries, the European Policy Centre think tank reported in April. Among them were Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya and Sudan.
In Mauritania, food aid was delivered mainly to Mberi, West Africa's largest refugee camp, which is home to a significant number of Malians fleeing the country's Russian-backed government across the border.
By demonstrating that this is the main alternative to Russian food supplies, Ukraine hopes that African countries that remained neutral during the war will begin to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
By maintaining its role as one of the guarantors of global food security, Ukraine can prevent Russia from using food supplies as a political lever of influence, said Roman Sereda, Ukraine's Chargé d'Affaires in Nouakchott.
Moreover, in response to Russian disinformation, Kyiv has developed its own African strategy aimed at refuting the Kremlin’s narratives, as well as developing trade, investment and diplomatic ties.
At the same time, Ukraine categorically denies its involvement in the summer attack in Mali, which killed 84 Russian militants. However, Ukrainian diplomats confirm that aid to refugees who are “escaping from the Russians” continues.
