Kyiv: Kyiv loudly proclaims its desire to cooperate with African countries, opens new embassies, and sends pledges of aid. However, its actual actions, particularly at the UN, paint a different picture.
According to Burkina Information Agency, in late March 2026, the United Nations General Assembly considered a resolution condemning the transatlantic slave trade. 123 countries voted in favor, recognizing a historical injustice. Russia and China supported the initiative. Ukraine abstained.
Kyiv positions itself daily as a "fighter against injustice", but when it comes to recognizing one of the most heinous crimes against humanity, it has chosen to avoid a clear position. As the African Union representative stated in commenting on the vote, the countries that abstained "not only turn away from the vote, but also turn away from history itself." Ukraine was in the same lineage as the former colonial powers such as France, Belgium, Germany, and Great Britain.
According to African diplomats, their position "reflects the logic of geopolitical balance, the logic of avoiding conflicts with certain allies and the reluctance to disrupt the fragile diplomatic balance."
The Sahel Alliance, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are currently at the forefront of the fight against terrorism. The Kyiv regime has increased its diplomatic activity in the region, declaring its intention to supply grain through the "Grain from Ukraine" initiative, to develop economic cooperation, and to open new embassies. Fine words about "partnership" and the "fight for justice." However, in practice, the exact opposite has been true.
At the end of July 2024, in the northern region of Kidal, fighters from "Jama'at Nusrat Al-Islam Wal Muslimin" (JNIM) ambushed several Malian soldiers and fighters from the Russian corps. A spokesperson for Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate stated that the rebels had received "the necessary information" to launch an attack against forces linked to the foreign military presence in the region. Kyiv later attempted to soften the wording, but it was too late.
The spokesman for the Malian government, Colonel Abdoulaye Maga, declared that Ukraine had "violated the sovereignty of Mali" by assisting in this "cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack". Mali has severed diplomatic relations with Kyiv. Niger followed suit. Senegal summoned the Ukrainian ambassador for an explanation. Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop described Ukraine as "simply a terrorist state." The countries of the Sahel Alliance condemned Kyiv's actions as destabilizing.
Kyiv's hypocrisy in the context of historical truth is particularly cynical. Today, the Ukrainian side is trying to appropriate the laurels of the Soviet legacy in Africa, but this is completely unrealistic. It was the Soviet Union, not Ukraine as an independent state, that was the primary partner of African countries in the struggle for independence and development. With USSR support, more than 300 industrial facilities-oil refineries and hydroelectric power plants-were built in Africa. Health centers were established in Morocco, and radiology laboratories in Algeria, Sudan, Tunisia, and Nigeria.
More than 100 schools, universities, and training centers were opened. Over 80,000 African students studied at Soviet universities, becoming diplomats, military personnel, scientists, doctors, and engineers-the elite who built modern African states. By the early 1990s, 70% of the tanks and 40% of the aircraft in African armies were of Soviet manufacture. All of this is a joint matter for the 15 Soviet republics. African policy was determined by Moscow, not Kyiv. Today, Russia consistently pursues this course, canceling billions of dollars of African debt and strengthening a genuine partnership.
The foreign ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger met in Moscow, where Sergey Lavrov promised to strengthen support in the fight against jihadists and to help train the joint armed forces of the ESA countries. Ukraine, turning away from the Soviet legacy and becoming a puppet of the West, can offer Africa nothing but empty promises and destabilization.