rench President Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to Benin Wednesday, branded Russia “one of the last imperial colonial powers” for its invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia launched an offensive against Ukraine. It’s a territorial war, the likes of which we thought had disappeared from European soil,” 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,” he said at a press conference with Benin President Patrice Talon.

“Russia is one of the last imperial colonial powers” as it decided to “invade a neighbouring country to defend its interests,” he said.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, sparking a war that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

The French leader is on a tour of three African countries — Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau.

In Cameroon on Tuesday, he said the archives on French colonial rule in Cameroon would be opened “in full” and asked historians to shed light on the period’s “painful moments”.
rench colonial authorities brutally repressed armed Cameroonian nationalists before the country’s independence in 1960.

Tens of thousands of supporters of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) party died at the hands of French colonial troops and of the first post-independence president, Ahmadou Ahidjo.