With your new appointment as Ukraine Envoy on Middle-East and Africa, what are your plans?
Thank you for this interview and your attention to the unjustified Russian war against Ukraine. First, I would like to emphasise that Ukraine considers Nigeria as one of its key partners in Africa. We look forward to developing comprehensive and mutually beneficial cooperation. In our opinion, there are numerous opportunities for the significant enhancement of bilateral ties. The collaboration potential between our countries is far from being fully tackled, so we hope that by joint efforts we will be able to significantly intensify our fruitful partnership and bring it to a qualitatively new level. In 2021, the volume of goods and services turnover between the two countries constituted USD196.7million. Before the war, about 10,000 Nigerian students were studying in Ukrainian educational institutions. On July 12, the President of Ukraine appointed me as the Special Representative of Ukraine for the Middle-East and Africa. My portfolio includes: elaborating concepts and strategies to develop relations with the Middle East and Africa; making proposals to the President of Ukraine on coordinating actions of the Ukrainian authorities in the realisation of bilateral and multilateral projects and initiatives with the relevant countries, as well as Ukraine’s participation in international fora concerning problems resolution and pressing issues of the Middle Eastern and African countries development; coordinating and making proposals concerning Ukraine’s position on international and other conflicts in the respective countries. The re-establishment of the Institute of the Special Representative demonstrates Ukraine’s profound interest to reinvigorate the dialogue and contacts with the countries of the African Union, especially in the context of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
What are the steps taken to strengthen the existing relationship between African countries and Ukraine?
We have resumed the export of grain to African countries and started granting state scholarships for African students to cover tuition in Ukraine. This matter is regulated by the relevant inter-governmental agreements on cooperation in the sphere of education. The President of Ukraine has already held more than a dozen of conversations with the leaders of different African countries. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has had about 20 telephone calls with his African counterparts since the Russian invasion started, as well as giving several interviews dedicated to the Russian unprovoked aggression against Ukraine and the ways to enhance Ukraine’s cooperation with African countries. Ukraine invited the leaders of the African countries to participate in the 2nd Summit of the Crimean Platform on August 24, 2022. Ukraine is planning to enter into preferential trade treaties with some African countries to remove the existing barriers, which hinder the full-scale development of our trade and economic relations with Africa.
Recently, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergei Lavrov, made a tour of four African countries. What is your take on this visit to Africa?
The Russian side uses such visits to disseminate disinformation and anti-Ukrainian narratives. The global food crisis has been caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine and the blockade of the main Ukrainian seaports in the Black Sea. Russia is not only conducting a neo-colonizer policy toward Ukraine, but it is also responsible for destabilising the political situation in several African countries by sending its private military companies that help to topple legitimate governments, commit military crimes against the local population, and pillage resources of the African countries. Many international experts regard Lavrov’s visit as a failure. The African countries understand the real reasons for international tension very well and realise that Africa is on the verge of hunger as a result of the Russian armed aggression. This threat was purposefully and artificially created by Moscow. African countries are already experiencing the consequences of these Russia’s irresponsible actions since Ukraine is one of the world’s leading producers and suppliers of agricultural products. In addition, Russia is actively trying to use its energy resources as a weapon and a blackmail tool. It is creating an artificial deficit, which causes the growth of prices in the world energy market, including in the African countries. Russia is purposefully instigating the global crisis because it wants to use people’s sufferings to pressure the countries that introduced sanctions against it. I want to emphasise that the sanctions policy has only one purpose: to stop Russia from trying to turn Ukraine into its colony. The Russian Federation, which is currently under sanctions pressure, simply cannot offer anything to Africa in the context of ensuring the economic development of these countries, democratic progress, overcoming poverty and unemployment.
With the growing increase of terrorism, would you say the proliferation of arms has anything to do with the war and how careful do you think NATO allies have been with weapons not getting into wrong hands?
Russian propaganda spreads false narratives about war fatigue in the West and tries to discredit Ukraine’s military forces. It disseminates accusations of ongoing violations and pending threats of Western weapons misuse or smuggling by Ukraine to undermine military aid provided to Ukraine by our partners. Ukraine strictly complies with all international non-proliferation treaties and agreements. The National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) and the Ministry of Defense (MoD) of Ukraine have developed a strict and sophisticated system of monitoring and control of weapons received from international partners.On July 21, the module of the information and analytical system “SOTA” was presented in Ukraine to monitor the supply of weapons to Ukraine from our partners. This module consists of three layers: public information; information for official use; and secret information. The top military and political officials have access to the “SOTA” system. With the help of that module, it is possible to trace what supplies of weapons are ready for shipment, on the way, or received by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In particular, the system collects data on types, quantities, manufacturers, and countries supplying Western weapons, as well as data on their delivery to Ukraine and individual military units. This is a completely closed system intended for use only by the highest political and military leadership of the relevant country. These data will not be publicly available. There is another system, “Korovai”, which is currently being finalised by specialists of the Ministry of Digital Transformation together with specialists from the Pentagon. It will be launched in full force later on. And since 2019, the internal system of NATO’s LOGFAS armament accounting system (its limited version) has been integrated with some Ukrainian state entities. Everything from quantity to logistics and needs is recorded there. Ukraine’s international partners will always be aware about the location of the weapons. On July 19, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy initiated the establishment by the Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) of Ukraine a Commission to oversee the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine. The commission includes representatives of all parliamentary factions and groups. The President assured that the Western partners were already “fully informed” about how Ukraine uses the weapons provided by them, so this additional instrument of parliamentary control was introduced “to prevent any manipulations by Russian propagandists”. The Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) of Ukraine established the Temporary Special Commission on monitoring the handover and use of international material and technical assistance during martial law.
The United States is being accused of promoting the war to raise the arms industry and its supply, do you agree with this narrative?
Russia is committing aggression against our country, which is 28 times smaller than Russia. Ukraine would not be able to preserve its existence without the support of the USA and other allies. We are very grateful to the USA and our western friends. It seems that the Russian Federation understands only the language of force, and our glorious armed forces demonstrate the best of it. Ukrainian diplomacy also effectively fights the aggressor in information and legal spheres. To cease the war, Russia has to de-occupy all the temporarily seized territories of Ukraine. Only then, we can start negotiations about Russia’s capitulation and payment of reparations for the damage inflicted on Ukraine. Unfortunately, it is not possible to bring back to life people who became innocent victims of the Russian invaders, but at least all the criminals must be brought to justice.
Recently, a security expert in a Nigerian national daily said some of the weapons sent to Ukraine will find their way to Africa, especially Nigeria, where insecurity is on the increase. What’s your take on this fear?
As I mentioned earlier, the western weapons in our hands cause a lot of damage to the Russians. That is why they do everything possible to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to damage our partners’ trust towards us. The Russian Federation has launched an information campaign intending to block the supply of weapons to Ukraine and to split the international coalition supporting our country. All these materials where Ukraine is accused of smuggling and reselling the weapons delivered by our partners are faked by Russia. It uses a wide range of propaganda instruments, so-called influencers, experts, mass media, and politicians not only in Russia but also overseas. The more western weapons will change the situation on the battlefield in favour of Ukraine, the more hysterical Russia will be. Russian totalitarian regime will be using propaganda to compensate for its collapsing military machine.mHowever, these Russian efforts to discredit Ukraine are in vain. Ukraine was the first one to initiate, and now, jointly with our western partners, is actively implementing comprehensive monitoring and control system over the supplied weapons. These mechanisms have been launched and they will further improve. The number of weapons provided and their sophistication demonstrate the level of trust in Ukraine, despite all the efforts of our enemy. There have been no allegations of mistrust from any official authority of our partners. Some allies sent their representatives to Ukraine, who could observe the use of the provided weapons. We are interested in maximum transparency in the matters of western weapons supply, which is decisive for our victory over the Russian aggressor. Western weapons combined with the heroism of the Ukrainian warriors will let us achieve victory much faster than one would expect.
About a month into the war, Defense Attache to Nigeria in the Ukraine Embassy, Colonel Andrii Vasyliev, said the government of Ukraine was ready to drag President Vladimir Putin before the International Court of Justice. Is this plan still on course?
This is still on course! For declaring war against Ukraine and the killing of innocent civilisan, we are ready to bring Putin to justice before the International Court. We will ensure Ukraine and its citizens get justice because very soon, Putin will have to answer charges for war crimes. The government of Ukraine is ready and very well prepared to bring him to justice. The government of Ukraine is already working to bring Putin to justice for his crimes on the territory of Ukraine in accordance with international law. So many Ukrainian homes have been destroyed and thousand killed. Russia and Putin have been committing war crimes. They did not adhere to the Geneva Convention. A breach of the convention is a crime against humanity. Many children have been killed and many others injured in the war.
