French President Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to Benin Wednesday, branded Russia “one of the last imperial colonial powers” for its invasion of Ukraine, according to France 24.
Russia launched an offensive against Ukraine. It’s a territorial war, the likes of which we thought had disappeared from European soil.
„It’s a war from the early 20th, even the 19th century,” Macron said on the second leg of a trip to Africa to reset France’s relations with the continent, where many nations are former French colonies.
“I speak on a continent that has suffered colonial imperialism,” Macron added.
Delivering the broadside at a news conference with Benin President Patrice Talon, Macron said “Russia is one of the last imperial colonial powers”, because it had decided to invade a neighboring country to defend its interests.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, triggering a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions and sparked fears of a global food crisis over blocked grain exports.
Macron accused the Kremlin of launching a new type of hybrid world war.
“It decided that information, energy and food were military instruments placed at the service of the war in Ukraine,” he said.
Macron said he wanted to describe what’s happening today in the baldest terms.
He accused Russia of disruption through “disinformation”, describing it as “one of the countries to make the most forceful use of instruments of propaganda”.
He referred specifically to the television channels Russia Today and Sputnik.
The French leader is on a tour of three African countries — Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau — that coincides with an African tour by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
In Ethiopia on Wednesday, Lavrov urged a gathering of African diplomats not to back a US-led world order.
Macron pledged that France, acting in support and at the request of our African partners, would stand by African countries facing security problems