Ukraine Professor: Russia must be defeated to restore world order
Oleg Nivievskyi, the Professor at KYIV School of Economics and vice-president of economics education, is encouraging Ghana and other African countries to support Ukraine in the fight against Russia.
On 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked act of aggression. The aftershocks of the ongoing war are being felt around the world, including in Africa.
Speaking on The Big Bulletin on Monday (17 October), 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
He 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 Radio‘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 Africa’s promising recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by raising food and fuel prices, disrupting trade of goods and services, tightening the fiscal space, constraining green transitions and reducing the flow of development finance in the continent, said United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Ahunna Eziakonwa.
Eziakonwa, who serves as the U.N. 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 and Ukraine is insignificant, some African countries rely heavily on these two countries for critical imports, particularly wheat, fertilizers and steel. A disruption in these imports could adversely impact African countries.
