KIYV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday warned African countries against supporting Russia’s aggression on his country, saying the continent had gained little from siding with Moscow.

Zelensky told a group of African journalists that it was in Africa’s interest to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine because it would amount to supporting “the truth.” “They are not investing in any countries.

That means Russia does not believe in you. All they are doing is making political investments. They have just one percent of investments in Africa, yet they are 30 times our size,” Mr Zelensky told the online press conference, his first with the continent... On Thursday, President Zelensky said Africa should not see the war as distant but look at Ukraine as a victim of an invasion violating international law, which African countries have signed.

He said he would send his Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba to Africa in September. “We would like the African countries not just to support Ukraine…but they should support the truth.

here is no value we can attach to freedom, and Russia cannot be using the oil to buy the freedom of others,” he said. In spite of sanctions on Russia, the mounting energy costs and rising food prices recently forced a mediated deal to have ships allowed into Ukrainian ports and ferry away its grain, the world’s biggest source.

Russia has been the largest gas supplier to Europe, and the sanctions have forced a debate on whether Europe could relapse to fossil fuels such as coal as it builds its own system of clean energy.