On March 2, the UN General Assembly in New York was asked to vote on a resolution calling for Russian troops to withdraw from Ukraine "immediately, completely and unconditionally."
One hundred and forty-one of the UN's 193 members voted in favour of the resolution — a strong signal of the international community's condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The vote, however, made clear Africa's division on the issue.
While 28 out of 54 African countries sided with Ukraine, the rest, bar Eritrea which voted against the resolution, either abstained or chose not to turn up to vote.
Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Togo, Eswatini and Morocco were absent.
Algeria, Uganda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Mali, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville, Sudan, South Sudan, Madagascar, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa abstained.
On the wrong side of history?
This has generated fierce criticism, especially from intellectuals, diplomats and opposition politicians in South Africa.
"The refusal to condemn this war puts South Africa on the wrong side of history," said Herman Mashaba of the newly formed opposition party, ActionSA.
Mashaba says it is obvious that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a "violation of international principles of law" and accuses South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) of refusing to cut ties with Russia, a historical ally.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has since defended his government's decision to abstain from voting on the UN resolution.
In a statement released on Monday, Ramaphosa said that the resolution failed to emphasize the role of peaceful dialogue in stopping the war, which is why his country couldn't support it.
Angolan political scientist Olivio N'kilumbu says many in the ANC are still loyal to Russia.
"Some are of the opinion that the former liberation movement still owes the Russians a lot since the days of the Cold War, and now we Africans have to shut up about the Russian invasion," he told DW.
Russian propaganda aims to "revive the old connections between the Soviet Union and liberation movements" in many African countries, including South Africa, he said.
Battle of words on Twitter
One example of this is a tweet from Russia's Embassy in South Africa, which thanked South Africans who had expressed their solidarity with Russia's fight against what the tweet refered to as "Nazism in Ukraine."
Germany's embassy in South Africa quickly responded with a tweet of its own.
"Sorry, but we can't keep silent on this one, it's just far too cynical. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is slaughtering innocent children, women and men, for its own gain. It's definitely not 'fighting Nazism'. Shame on anyone who's falling for it," says the German reaction, which ends with a statement in brackets: "Sadly, we're kinda experts on Nazism."
But Germany's response provoked some heavy criticisms from South African Twitter users.
Some pointed to the Soviet Union's support for South Africa's apartheid liberation struggle while others sided with Russia's justification for the invasion of Ukraine or were critical of Germany's colonial history in southern Africa.
One user writes: "Russia is only opposing Nato's advance into Ukrainian territory. The consequences of this expansion were clear and Nato decided to ignore them. This war was foreseeable and avoidable."
Africa's historic connection to the Soviet Union
Political scientist N'Kilumbu says that Russia's propaganda is also directed at other African countries, especially in the south of the continent, whose liberation movements had political and military support from the former Soviet Union.
By abstaining from voting on the UN's Ukraine resolution, countries like Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia had this "historic friendship in mind," N'Kilumbu said.
"Especially in Angola and Mozambique, there has been virtually no political change since the Cold War era. And that's why the umbilical cord that connects these countries to Moscow has never been severed," said N'Kilumbu.
The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), for example, continues to maintain close ties with Russia's military, business and political elites, N'Kilumbu points out.
Russian resources and weapons
In recent years, Russia has increasingly used this historic Soviet connections to expand its political, economic and, above all, military relations with African nations.
In 2019, Vladimir Putin hosted a Russia-Africa Summit attended by 43 African leaders.
Just one year later, Russia became Africa's biggest arms supplier.
According to a 2020 analysis by the peace research institute SIPRI, between 2016 and 2020 around 30% of all arms exported to sub-Saharan Africa countries came from Russia.
This vastly overshadows weapon supplies from other nations such as China (20%), France (9.5%) and the USA (5.4%).
This increased the volume of Russian arms shipments by 23% over the previous five-year period.
