Oleg Nivievskyi, a professor at the Kyiv School of Economics where he serves as vice-president of economics education, is encouraging Ghana and other African countries to support Ukraine in the fight against Russia.
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked act of aggression.
The aftershocks of the war are being felt by people around the world, including Africa.
Speaking on The Big Bulletin on Monday (17 October 2022), Nivievskyi said: “At the moment we have to find a way to win [over] Russia, otherwise it’s going to be difficult; it’s going to last for God knows how long.
“So, Russia has to be defeated, otherwise the world will be insecure. Because what I would like to stress is we, as a civilised world, we need trustful partners, secured partners that we can trust.
“Russia at the moment is not a trustful partner and it really undermines the world order.”
Rallying behind Ukraine
Nivievskyi said that African countries need a “unified voice” to back Ukraine in the fight against Russia.
“I think African countries can have a stronger voice,” Nivievskyi told Asaase 99.5’s Beatrice Adu. “There was a summit recently in UN in terms of recognising the ‘fake referendum’ which was recently done in Ukraine by Russians, and in that vote there were a couple of African countries that were kind of voting against although the majority were supporting Ukraine.”
According to him, Russia has to be defeated for the world to get back to normal.
“So, I will like for the African countries to be more united so that everybody understands the consequences and who is to blame. So, that’s the purpose of this visit. And by establishing platforms for discussions, we really hope the message is getting through and everybody is on the same page.”
Russia’s war in Ukraine has disrupted the promise of Africa’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by raising food and fuel prices, disrupting trade in goods and services, tightening the fiscal space, constraining green transitions and reducing the flow of development finance around the continent, said United Nations Assistant Secretary General Ahunna Eziakonwa.
Eziakonwa, who serves as the UN Development Programme’s assistant administrator and regional director for Africa, said the war has put households, communities and countries across Africa in a “very precarious situation”.
While the level of trade between the African continent as a whole and Russia/Ukraine is insignificant, some African countries rely heavily on these two countries for critical imports, particularly wheat, fertilisers and steel. Disruptions to supplies of these imports has adversely affected African countries.
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