Arusha — Ukraine wants African countries to hear more than one account of the war with Russia, First Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Korniyenko told The Chanzo, coupling an appeal for public attention with a call for deeper diplomatic, commercial and, where governments choose, sanctions cooperation.
“Your worker, your teacher, your young person, your farmer will feel food prices because of our war,” Mr Korniyenko told The Chanzo on October 9, on the final day of the 153rd Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Arusha.
The Ukrainian parliamentary delegation, which Korniyenko led, used the October 5–9 meeting to press its case with legislators from around the world. Ukraine’s parliament says its delegation held 23 bilateral meetings and sought support on security, food, accountability and inter-parliamentary cooperation.
Korniyenko said the war, which Russia’s full-scale invasion escalated in February 2022, should matter to people far from Europe not only because of markets but because it challenges rules against changing borders by force.
He argued that African countries, many of which have their own experience of border disputes, have an interest in defending territorial integrity.
“One of the bad ideas Russia has pushed is that you can change a border with a mark on a map,” he said. “I know that in Africa, on your side, this is not a good idea.”
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His message was not a request that every African government immediately sever relations with Moscow. Instead, he described a menu of bilateral trade arrangements, diplomatic recognition, support at the United Nations and, ultimately, sanctions tailored to each country’s laws and interests.
“For us, of course, it is important that our partners who support Ukraine do something to show Russia that it should be treated at the diplomatic level,” he said. “But it is a decision of the country.”
A difficult audience
Korniyenko’s appeal came against a record of varied African positions at the United Nations. Tanzania abstained on the March 2, 2022 General Assembly resolution condemning the aggression against Ukraine, while the UN’s record for the February 23, 2023 resolution on principles for a just and lasting peace shows that Tanzania did not cast a recorded vote, rather than listing it among abstentions.
He said Ukraine had to do more to make its own case across the continent. Ukraine’s official Africa communication strategy sets the same goal: build long-term political and economic ties, communicate Kyiv’s position on Russia’s invasion and counter narratives it describes as anti-Ukrainian disinformation.
In the interview, Korniyenko attributed African reluctance to isolate Russia partly to what he called the strength of Russian “propaganda.” He said Moscow used cultural programmes, student exchanges and other forms of soft power to circulate misleading messages, including the claim that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
Those are Ukraine’s characterisations of Russia’s influence in Africa. Korniyenko said Kyiv did not intend to blame African governments for their positions, but saw the gap as a reason to strengthen its diplomatic and public outreach.
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“We need to do more,” he said, adding that Ukraine had opened seven embassies in Africa as part of that response. The strategy describes a wider push to improve communication capacity, trade, food-security cooperation and cultural ties across the continent.
His direct request to citizens was simpler. “Please read and share different information from Western sources, not just from Russian sources, not just from local media, so that all sides and all facets of this war are shown,” he said.
Food and security
Korniyenko said food security was one way the war reached ordinary households. He also argued that a conflict marked by the pervasive use of drones was changing military practice beyond Ukraine.
“We have the first war in history which relies on drones,” he said. “This means that the rules of warfare, tactics of fighting and tactics of dealing with any security issue are changing right now.”
The link between conflict and food costs is not linear. The World Bank’s September update said global food supplies were generally adequate, though cereal prices had risen 18 per cent since June and it cited tighter production conditions, fertiliser costs and El Niño as factors.
At the IPU, Ukraine submitted an emergency-item proposal on protecting civilians and critical civilian infrastructure during armed conflicts. It did not become the Assembly’s emergency item, which focused on climate-related disasters, but Ukraine’s delegation said it secured backing for a future IPU resolution on the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure in war.
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The Assembly brought together about 700 parliamentarians from more than 130 countries, including a Task Force on the peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine. That task force was created in 2022 to encourage dialogue between Ukrainian and Russian parliamentarians in support of diplomacy founded on sovereignty and territorial integrity.
A peace on Kyiv’s terms
Korniyenko said Ukraine accepted that the war would need a diplomatic settlement, but rejected the idea of a deal that recognised Russian control over occupied territory.
“All wars come to an end through negotiation; we understand it,” he said. “But this diplomatic solution should be fully in accordance with Ukrainian national interests: full respect for Ukrainian territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.”
He defined victory as the restoration of Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders, including Crimea. “We will never recognise the annexation of Crimea. We will never recognise the annexation of our territories,” he said.
Those are Ukraine’s stated negotiating objectives, not an agreed peace formula. The IPU’s own framework similarly says its task force should support dialogue under a rules-based order that respects sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference.
Korniyenko also raised a pointed concern about the IPU’s outgoing president, Dr Tulia Ackson. He said Ukraine had repeatedly invited her to visit Ukraine, and he contrasted that with visits he said she had made to Russia, although he said he could not recall how many.
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“I do not know,” he said when asked why Ackson had not travelled to Ukraine. “I know the fact. The fact is that the IPU President was in Russia, never was in Ukraine.”
Ackson’s three-year presidency ended at the Arusha Assembly on October 9, when Australia’s Milton Dick was elected to succeed her. Korniyenko said Ukraine would ask the new president to visit.
For the Ukrainian official, the appeal in Arusha was ultimately about attention as much as state policy. He spoke of his three daughters, aged nine, six and three, going to school and using shelters in Kyiv, and said Ukrainians’ endurance gave him hope.
“It is our people, it is our soldiers,” he said. “All this gives us hope that we will have justice, a lasting peace for us and an end to the war.”
