*Says he is ready to visit any African nation if invited

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has expressed interest in strengthening the relationship between Ukraine and African nations, noting that six African leaders who visited the country earlier this year with different impressions about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

President Zelenskyy has stated that African leaders, who visited Ukraine earlier in the year with mixed feelings and information about the happenings in the country left with entirely changed perceptions.

Speaking Tuesday during a meeting with a group of African journalists in Kyiv, the Capital City of Ukraine, Ukrainian President said that the leaders saw first hand, the level of damage done to his country by Russia, the consequences of war on children and adults, and left the country with the understanding that it was Russia fighting Ukraine and not the other way round.

The sitting South Africa President, Cyril Ramaphosa along with leaders from other African nations, including Macky Sall of Senegal, Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia and Azali Assoumani of the Union of the Comoros had visited Kyiv in June.

According to the President, “They saw the damage done in Ukraine by Russia. We are the victims; the crises affect us and we are struggling to get people understand the situation through African leaders.”

President Zelenskyy also reiterated his readiness to visit African nations to strengthen relationships, especially on easy movement of grains.

He said he would be glad to receive proposals from African nations on how to achieve direct supply of grains and eliminate third party.

“We would be available to supply directly without the third party.”

Speaking on the difficulties in exporting Ukraine agricultural products due to Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea, he expressed delight that the country currently uses a parallel export corridor, which might be longer but manageable.

This effort he said, was to show his country’s interest in global food security.

According to him, about four million metric tons of grains went through the corridor in the first months of its existence.

“The corridor is longer, there are challenges but we have achieved some amount of success. Russia tried but failed to block this corridor. Also, we are trying to tidy things up at the Black Sea”, he said.

In as much as the Ukrainian President regret the tragedy arising from the hostilities between Isreal and Hamas, he insisted that there was no comparison between the war in the Middle East and the invasion of Ukraine by Russian Federation.

According to him, 20,000 children have been adopted, more than 20,000 local residents buried and over $40 billion lost to the economy of the country since Russian invasion since February last year.

He said: “We cannot compare the hostility in the Middle East with the full scale war in Ukraine.

“We have never before invaded Russia. Ours was an unprovoked development. That is the reason I will not compare this with the tragedy in the Middle East.”

He however urged the world to do all it could to end all forms of wars.

Following the working tour of Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba to African countries earlier in the year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, with the support of a Non-Governmental Organization – New Ukrainian Narratives, decided to launch a press tour for African media representatives to Ukraine.

The purpose of the tour was to provide African media representatives with an information and comprehensive understanding of the nature of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

It was also aimed at fostering stronger bilateral and multilateral relations between Ukraine and African nations.