Ukraine seeks African allies through food and diplomacy

Jessica Donati and Olena Harmash, Reuters

On Africa's dry western tip, Mauritania has become an unlikely staging post for Ukraine's increasingly global struggle with its adversary Russia. Kyiv's new embassy in the country's capital Nouakchott - among eight it has opened in Africa since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine — has overseen food aid deliveries to refugees from neighbouring Mali, embassy and aid officials say. Kyiv is also offering to train Mauritanian soldiers, Ukraine's top envoy to Africa told Reuters, amid tension between Mauritania and Mali, where Moscow backs government forces against Tuareg rebels.

Moscow's soldiers and mercenaries guard presidents in several West and Central African countries, while Russian mining companies are entrenched in the Sahel region that includes Mali. Russia's military presence in the Sahel "undermined stability", the envoy, Maksym Subkh said in an interview in Kyiv. "Ukraine is ready to continue training officers and representatives of the Mauritanian armed forces, to share the technologies and achievements that Ukraine has made" on the battlefield against Russia, Subkh said, adding that Ukraine had previously provided such training prior to Russia's invasion.

The Mauritanian government did not respond to a request for comment about Ukraine's offer of more training. Russia's embassy in Mauritania did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier in June, the Kremlin said Russia would increase cooperation with African countries including in sensitive areas such as defence. Russia is the largest weapons supplier to Africa, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Reuters' interviews with four senior Ukrainian officials, two aid officials and Western diplomats and analysts for this story, along with access to new missions in Mauritania and Democratic Republic of Congo, reveal new details about Kyiv's Africa strategy including the deliveries of aid to Malian refugees, the proposal to train Mauritania's military, and the broader bid to counter Russia's much more entrenched presence. Early in the Ukraine war, many African countries declined to take Kyiv's side at the United Nations, even after Russia's bombing of Ukraine's ports drove up prices on the continent as exports of food and fertiliser were curtailed. Months later, Ukraine produced its first Africa strategy, a public document. The stated goals were to counter Russia's narrative and increase trade and investment on a continent that remembers Russian support in the Cold War and Moscow's stance against apartheid.

Subkh was appointed to lead the effort, and Kyiv has since opened eight out of 10 new embassies announced in 2022, he said, bringing to 18 the number of missions Ukraine has in Africa. Host countries include Ivory Coast and Congo, which condemned Russia's invasion early on. Kyiv plans to open an embassy this year in Sudan, where Russia is accused by the US of arming both sides in a brutal conflict. Russia denies a role there.

However, Kyiv cannot match an opponent with deep commercial and security ties, including a long-standing presence of Moscow's intelligence agencies. In total, Russia has around 40 missions in Africa, and recently announced plans to open seven more.

Ukraine wants to persuade African nations that its fight against Russia, its Soviet-era master, has parallels with their own efforts to overcome the legacy of European colonialism, Subkh said.

Despite the offer of military training, Ukraine's wartime effort to win African allies has largely focused on food. Kyiv says it has sent nearly 300,000 tonnes as aid, distributed through the World Food Programme (WFP) under an EU and US-financed scheme called Grain from Ukraine that rivals a similar Russian food aid plan for Africa.

The Ukrainian-branded aid has reached 8 million people in 12 countries, the European Policy Centre, a think-tank, said in April. Recipients have included Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya and Sudan. In Mauritania it has mostly been destined for Mbera, West Africa's largest refugee camp, housing soaring numbers of Malians fleeing the Russia-backed forces across the border.

And after the reopening of Black Sea ports bombarded and blockaded by Russia in the first two years of war, Ukraine exported nearly 10 million tonnes of grain to Africa in 2024, almost double the previous year, agriculture ministry data shows. By showing it is a major alternative to Russian food supplies, Ukraine hopes African nations that have maintained neutrality over the war will begin to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

"Maintaining its role as one of the guarantors of the world's food security, Ukraine can prevent Russia from using food supplies as political leverage," Roman Sereda, Ukraine's chargé d'affaires in Nouakchott, where Russia has had an embassy for six decades, said in an interview. In April, Volodymyr Zelensky became the first Ukrainian president to visit South Africa, a close Russia ally. He called for recognition of Ukraine's struggle and playing up potential deals on energy, fertiliser production and security.

South African foreign ministry spokesman Chrispin Phiri said both Ukraine and Russia were allies. He said South Africa advocated for peace and was mediating on humanitarian issues such as the return of Ukrainian children Kyiv says were taken to Russia.

However, South African analyst Tim Murithi said Ukraine's Africa strategy lacked coherence, pointing out that Kyiv had not nominated an ambassador in Ethiopia, a key posting that countries including Russia use to engage with the influential African Union, based in Addis Ababa.

Ukraine's commercial exports are heavily tilted towards North Africa, with sub-Saharan nations including Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria buying a fraction of what they imported before the war, Ukrainian data shows. Mauritania itself bought far less food from Ukraine last year than in 2021. There have been setbacks in Ukraine's Africa drive, such as the downgrading of a planned October 2024 Ukraine-Africa summit to a video conference. Moscow hosted a well-attended Africa summit in 2023.

"At the beginning, they wanted to have it physically in Kyiv," said Jean-Yves Ollivier, chairman of the Brazzaville Foundation, a conflict prevention organisation that Ukraine consulted on the summit. The downgrade has not previously been reported. Subkh did not respond to a request for comment about the event. At times, Ukraine's higher profile has been controversial. Mali broke off relations with Kyiv over a Tuareg rebel attack in July that wiped out 47 Malian soldiers and 84 Russian fighters supporting the government, after a Ukrainian intelligence official appeared to suggest Ukrainian involvement. Ukraine has since strongly denied it was involved. Ukraine had no role in covert operations in the region, Subkh said.

Now, a small quantity of Ukraine's aid has reached the Malian refugees fleeing the violence, WFP's spokesperson in Mauritania confirmed in response to questions for this story. The camp's population has almost tripled in two years to about 250,000 people.

Three deliveries amounting to a total of about 1,400 tonnes had arrived in Mauritania by December, one of Ukraine's diplomats in Nouakchott, Viktor Bort, said. The split peas, vegetable oil and wheat were still being distributed to Mbera in May, the WFP spokesperson said.

Bort, 29, who staffed the mission alone when it opened in May 2024, told Reuters his focus was to build relationships in the government and oversee the deliveries of aid to WFP for the Malian refugees, who he said were fleeing Russians.

Kyiv's senior Africa envoy, Subkh, said aid distribution was decided by WFP. Ukraine's contributions were strictly humanitarian and the country opposed politicising aid, he said. Mauritania's communications ministry said the government had accepted Ukrainian food aid deliveries. It said it did not know that Ukrainian aid had reached the camp.

Ukraine's new missions are thinly staffed and it has sought support from volunteers and donors. Two diplomats from other countries said the embassy official in Mauritania, Bort, initially travelled without security, relying on friendly envoys from other countries for help, but quickly gained notice for his energy and networking.

Sereda, the chargé d'affaires who joined Bort some months ago, said Ukraine's outreach and aid deliveries had improved Kyiv's reputation and Mauritanians' understanding of its position, with increased trade links hopefully to follow. The Mauritanian government declined to comment. Elsewhere, aid recipients have included war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo, where Ukraine's ambassador Vasyl Hamianin told Reuters the two countries were discussing long-term agriculture and food security agreements.

"We accepted the Ukrainian embassy in a spirit of openness and cooperation. There is no need to link its presence to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine," Congo's presidential office said in a statement.