(CNN)Russia's recognition of two pro-Russian breakaway regions in Ukraine as "independent states" has been condemned by Kenya's ambassador to the UN, who used Africa's past to warn that clinging to the legacies of colonialism risked "new forms of domination and oppression."
Russia sharply escalated its military campaign against Ukraine on Monday night, recognizing the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region before ordering troops into the territories.
"This situation echoes our history. Kenya and almost every African country was birthed by the ending of empire," Kenyan UN Ambassador Martin Kimani said in a speech at the UN Security Council on Monday. "Our borders were not of our own drawing. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropoles of London, Paris and Lisbon, with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart."
Kenya, which had been under British rule since 1895, was named an official colony in 1920 and remained that way until it won independence in 1963.
"At independence, had we chosen to pursue states on the basis of ethnic, racial or religious homogeneity, we would still be waging bloody wars these many decades later," he said.
"Instead, we agreed that we would settle for the borders that we inherited, but we would still pursue continental political, economic and legal integration. Rather than form nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our many nations and peoples had ever known."
Kimani drew the comparisons in an address to the U.N. Security Council.
He continued: "We believe that all states formed from empires that have collapsed or retreated have many peoples in them yearning for integration with peoples in neighboring states. This is normal and understandable. After all, who does not want to be joined to their brethren and to make common purpose with them?
"However, Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force. We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression," he said.
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A damaged house is worked on after shelling near the front-line city of Novoluhanske in Ukraine's Donetsk region on Tuesday, February 22.
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A Ukrainian army officer looks at his phone on a train in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, February 23.
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Smoke rises from a damaged power plant in Shchastya that Ukrainian authorities say was hit by shelling on February 22. Amid continuing reports of ceasefire violations, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the town of Shchastya has sustained some of the heaviest shelling.
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Mourners gather at a church in Kyiv on February 22 for the funeral of Ukrainian Army Capt. Anton Sydorov. The Ukrainian military said he was killed by a shrapnel wound on February 19 after several rounds of artillery fire were directed at Ukrainian positions near Myronivske.
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Ukrainian soldiers pay their respects during Sydorov's funeral in Kyiv on February 22.
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A sign displays conversion rates at a currency exchange kiosk in Kyiv on February 22. Global markets tumbled the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into parts of eastern Ukraine.
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A tank drives along a street in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine, on February 22.
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People who left a separatist-held region in eastern Ukraine watch an address by Putin from their hotel room in Taganrog, Russia, on Monday, February 21. Putin blasted Kyiv's growing security ties with the West, and in lengthy remarks about the history of the USSR and the formation of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, he appeared to cast doubt on Ukraine's right to self-determination.
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Putin signs decrees recognizing the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic in a ceremony in Moscow on February 21. Earlier in the day, the heads of the self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics requested the Kremlin leader recognize their independence and sovereignty. Members of Putin's Security Council supported the initiative in a meeting earlier in the day.
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Protesters demanding economic sanctions against Russia stand outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv on February 21. Only a small number of protesters showed up to demonstrate.
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An employee inspects a bomb shelter in Lviv, Ukraine, on February 21.
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Ukrainian servicemen shop in the front-line town of Avdiivka, Ukraine, on February 21.
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Activists hold a performance in front of the Russian embassy in Kyiv on February 21 in support of prisoners who were arrested in Crimea. They say the red doors are a symbol of the doors that were kicked in to search and arrest Crimean Tatars, a Muslim ethnic minority.
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Russian trucks and armored vehicles park along a highway roughly 60 miles north of the Ukraine border near Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on February 21.
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People lay flowers at the Motherland Monument in Kyiv on February 21.
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A local resident shows the depth of a crater from shelling in a field behind his house in the village of Tamarchuk, Ukraine, on Sunday, February 20.
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Ukrainian service members are seen along the front line outside of Popasna, Ukraine, on February 20.
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People evacuated from the pro-Russian separatist regions of Ukraine are seen at a temporary shelter in Taganrog, Russia, on February 20.
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Anastasia Manha lulls her 2-month-old son Mykyta after alleged shelling by separatists forces in Novohnativka, Ukraine, on February 20.
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A Ukrainian soldier stays on position on the front line near Novohnativka on February 20.
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A couple arrives at the city council to get married in Odessa, Ukraine, on February 20. As Ukrainian authorities reported further ceasefire violations and top Western officials warned about an impending conflict, life went on in other parts of the country.
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Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy, left, visits soldiers at a front-line position in Novoluhanske on Saturday, February 19. Minutes after he left, the position came under fire. No one was injured.
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A woman rests in a car near a border checkpoint in Avilo-Uspenka, Russia, on February 19.
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Residents of the breakaway Donetsk state sign up for evacuation to Russia on February 19. The evacuation orders were given Friday by pro-Russian separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine's breakaway regions, who claimed they were necessary because of an imminent offensive by the Ukrainian army. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly denied any such plans and accused the separatists of launching a "disinformation campaign." The restive eastern part of the country has witnessed the worst shelling in years in recent days, with Ukraine and Russia accusing the other of heavy shelling of civilian areas.
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A Ukrainian service member walks by a building on February 19 that was hit by mortar fire in the front-line village of Krymske, Ukraine.
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Fighter jets fly over Belarus during a joint military exercise the country held with Russia on February 19.
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Members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, the reserve forces of Ukraine's military, train at a former asphalt factory on the outskirts of Kyiv on February 19.
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Soldiers stand guard at a military command center in Novoluhanske on February 19.
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People sit on a bus in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Friday, February 18, after they were ordered to evacuate to Russia by pro-Russian separatists.
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The remains of a military vehicle are seen in a parking lot outside a government building following an explosion in Donetsk on February 18. Ukrainian and US officials said the vehicle explosion was a staged attack designed to stoke tensions in eastern Ukraine.
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A memorial service and candlelight vigil is held at the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv on February 18. They honored those who died in 2014 while protesting against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian leader who later fled the country.
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A kindergarten that officials say was damaged by shelling is seen in Stanytsia Luhanska, Ukraine, on Thursday, February 17. No lives were lost, but it was a stark reminder of the stakes for people living near the front lines that separate Ukrainian government forces from Russian-backed separatists.
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Children play on old Soviet tanks in front of the Motherland Monument in Kyiv on Wednesday, February 16.
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Ambassadors of European countries lay roses at the Wall of Remembrance in Kyiv on February 16. The wall contains the names and photographs of military members who have died since the conflict with Russian-backed separatists began in 2014.
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US troops walk on the tarmac at the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland on February 16. US paratroopers landed in Poland as part of a deployment of several thousand sent to bolster NATO's eastern flank in response to tensions with Russia.
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A 200-meter-long Ukrainian flag is unfolded at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv on February 16 to mark a "Day of Unity," an impromptu celebration declared by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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Travelers wait in line to check in to their departing flights Tuesday, February 15, at the Boryspil International Airport outside Kyiv. US President Joe Biden has urged Americans in Ukraine to leave the country, warning that "things could go crazy quickly" in the region.
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A Ukrainian serviceman carries an anti-tank weapon during an exercise in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on February 15.
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A location of Oschadbank, a state-owned bank, is seen in Kyiv on February 15. The websites of Oschadbank and PrivatBank, the country's two largest banks, were hit by cyberattacks that day, as were the websites of Ukraine's defense ministry and army, according to Ukrainian government agencies.
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A woman and child walk underneath a military monument in Senkivka, Ukraine, on Monday, February 14. It's on the outskirts of the Three Sisters border crossing between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
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F/A-18E and 18F Super Hornets are seen on the flight deck of the USS Harry S. Truman, an American aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea on February 14. The Truman was on its way to the Middle East in mid-December, but the Pentagon decided to keep it in Europe as tensions began to escalate.
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Ukrainian service members talk at a front-line position in eastern Ukraine on February 14.
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Members of Ukraine's National Guard look out a window as they ride a bus through the capital of Kyiv on February 14.
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Satellite images taken on February 13 by Maxar Technologies revealed that dozens of helicopters had appeared at a previously vacant airbase in Russian-occupied Crimea.
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The Russian navy's diesel-electric Kilo-class submarine, Rostov-on-Don, moves through Turkey's Bosphorus Strait en route to the Black Sea on February 13.
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US soldiers and military vehicles are seen at a military airport in Mielec, Poland, on February 12. The White House approved a plan for the nearly 2,000 US troops in Poland to help Americans who may try to evacuate Ukraine if Russia invades, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.
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An anti-war demonstration takes place in Kyiv's Independence Square on February 12.
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Pro-Russian separatists observe the movement of Ukrainian troops from trenches in Ukraine's Donbas area on February 11.
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Ukrainian service members unpack Javelin anti-tank missiles that were delivered to Kyiv on February 10 as part of a US military support package for Ukraine.
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Ukrainian service members walk on an armored fighting vehicle during a training exercise in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region on February 10.
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The Kremlin's decree recognizing the DPR and LPR, followed by the decision to deploy what it calls "peacekeeping" troops in the area, represents a sharp escalation in a long-running conflict.
For almost eight years the breakaway enclaves have been the site of a low-intensity war between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces which has left more than 14,000 people dead.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to send forces into the separatist-held areas has raised fears of a broader war in Ukraine, and triggered a tranche of sanctions from Western governments.
Moscow had long maintained that it had no soldiers on the ground in eastern Ukraine.
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