(Dakar) Mali announced on Sunday that it was breaking off diplomatic relations with Ukraine after a senior Ukrainian official, according to Bamako, admitted to Kyiv’s “involvement” in a heavy defeat of the Malian army and the Russian paramilitary group Wagner at the end of July during fighting with separatists and jihadists.
Mali’s transitional government has decided to “sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine with immediate effect,” government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga said.
The government of Mali “has learned, with deep shock, of the subversive remarks by which Andriy Yusov, spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, admitted the involvement of Ukraine in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups that resulted in the death of elements of the Malian Defense and Security Forces in Tinzawatène, as well as material damage,” denounces Mr. Maïga in the press release.
“The fact that the rebels received the necessary data that allowed them to successfully carry out an operation against Russian war criminals has already been observed by the whole world. Of course, we will not disclose the details. More information to come here too,” Yusov said on Ukrainian television on Monday. A video that was relayed by the Ukrainian ambassador to Senegal.
The Malian government considers that these acts “violate the sovereignty of Mali, go beyond the framework of foreign interference, and constitute support for international terrorism.”
The Malian army and its Russian allies suffered one of their biggest setbacks in years in northern Mali in late July, suffering heavy losses after fighting against separatist rebels and an attack by jihadists.
This defeat is the heaviest suffered in a battle by the Wagner group in Africa, analysts agree.