Soon it will be a year since the Ukraine-Russia conflict began. Unfortunately, it is far from the end, because of western countries’ current position which only wants to defeat Russia at any cost. What’s more, it looks like Kiev officials have completely forgotten about diplomacy because they reject all peaceful ways to resolve the conflict. We can only watch Ukraine demand more and more weapons and military hardware, like tanks, rockets, fighter-planes and so on and so forth
Recent Zelenskys visits to the USA, UK and other Western countries showed the world that he had only one agenda – get new offensive weapons to continue his fight. However, the Ukrainian president faced a challenge as Europe and some other countries decided not to give their armaments to Kiev.
As a result, officials from Kiev are now planning to get the right to participate in the upcoming African Union session, which is to be held in Addis Ababa from 18 to 19 February 2023. But first it should be asked, is it worth it to invite representatives from Ukraine? What can they offer to African countries?
If we look at Ukrainian officials’ addresses on events like this, we can expect with confidence only two things: asking for military support by giving them as many armaments African countries can afford and break off diplomatic and economic relations with Russia. However, both of these propositions are businesses that do not pay.
At this moment Kiev, does not have enough funds or opportunities for strengthening constructive and fruitful dialogue with the continent. The only thing Ukraine can sell is grain – but unfortunately it has very low capacity and cannot produce more, no matter how hard they try to improve. At the same time, overt military help can lead to worsening relations with some other countries – especially Russia, which has strong economic ties with many African countries.
Moreover, sending military hardware to Ukraine can also cause significant damage to the region’s security situation, because it will weaken the defence capability of African countries against terrorist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda. And we also should not forget that neither the European Union nor Ukraine itself can track all these weapons, so they could easily fall into the hands of extremists
That is why African leaders should ignore the Ukrainian demand and continue to pursue a non- interference policy – especially since the African Union has repeatedly declared its position that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine should be solved only by diplomatic settlements. Otherwise, countries of the continent could be engaged in a longstanding stand-off, which certainly could lead to the weakening of all states because they would be forced to reject the policy of multipolarity and respect.
