Image said to show Ukrainian security official pushing back Africans trying to board train. Screen shot from YouTube video.
“Anger at Treatment of Africans Fleeing Ukraine,” was the headline of a BBC news report on February 28, 2022.
African students in Kyiv and other large cities have been fleeing the war zone following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, toward the border as have hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and others seeking refuge in Poland and other neighboring countries.
The Ukrainian authorities however separated the Africans at the border blocking them from crossing into Poland saying only Ukrainians were allowed. Earlier, many were even blocked from entering trains that carried people to the borders.
Such action is against international law and contravenes the Geneva Refugee Convention of 1951. While the outpouring of sympathy in the U.S. and Europe for Ukraine whose sovereignty was violated by its powerful neighbor is understandable, the BBC news reporting of another side of Ukraine brought back ugly memories of 2014 for us Africans in the Diaspora when African students stranded in Ukraine in the aftermath of the Orange Revolution were terrorized and physically assaulted.
The prolonged political instability and economic downturn that followed was exploited by neo Nazi ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic elements who played major roles in the 2014 anti-government protests. These ultra-nationalists adorned the entrance to the Kyiv City Council with a portrait of Stepan Bandera, WWII era ultra-nationalist leader allied with the invading Nazis at the time. One of the prominent leaders of the Maidan Protests that began in 2013 and went into 2014—leading to the ouster of President Victor Yanukovich—was Andrij Biletsky, head of the neo Nazi group-Patriots of Ukraine-whose mission he stated was to “lead the white race of the world in a final crusade –against the semite-led Untermenschen” (German word for subhuman). It is also interesting that Ukraine is the world’s only nation to have a neo-Nazi formation in its armed forces.
As in 2014, African students are now once again being targeted and scapegoated by the Ukrainian border guards. Are these elements from the racist and xenophobic ultra-nationalists groups or are they officials of the current government or are they one and the same? This is the reality of Ukraine that no one in the West is willing to address and may come back to haunt them as they deal with their own homegrown White supremacists who see Ukraine as a model. One can condemn Russian aggression and racism and neo-Nazism at the same time.
Meantime the African students find themselves helpless with their home countries unable or unwilling to help them. The African Union (AU) has issued a tepid statement urging all countries to respect international law and offer assistance to everyone fleeing from the war irrespective of the race. “Reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach international law,” AU added in its statement.
Mobilizing political, economic and military support by the Western democracies for a country that has been invaded is laudable. Such mobilization and solidarity has not been seen in areas of conflict involving people of color since some of these democracies themselves are protagonists in the conflict.
However ignoring the fact that the government may embrace people who harbor racist ultra-nationalist ideology—notwithstanding that Ukraine has a Jewish president—is beyond the pale. This is even more alarming considering that its armed forces, that include a battalion of neo-Nazis, are now being supplied with the latest weapons technology in the West’s arsenal.
One can only wonder about the message the U.S. and its European allies are sending.
Mohammed A. Nurhussein, MD, is a retired Ethiopian-born physician.
