by Nurat Uthman
Mali is immediately cutting diplomatic ties with Ukraine over comments by a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) about fighting in its north that killed Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters in late July, it said on Sunday.
The northern Tuareg rebels say they killed at least 84 mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers over three days of fighting late last month in the north of the West African country, in what appeared to be Wagner’s heaviest defeat since it stepped into the conflict two years ago.
On July 29, Andriy Yusov, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR), told the public broadcaster Suspilne that the Malian rebels had received “all the information they needed, which allowed [them] to carry out their operation against the Russian war criminals”.
Mali said it had learned “with deep shock” of the remarks and that Yusov had “admitted Ukraine’s involvement in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups that resulted in the death of members of the Malian Defence and Security Forces”.
It said it would break off relations “with immediate effect”, a statement from government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said.
Mali also cited comments by Ukraine’s Ambassador to Senegal Yurii Pyvovarov, who was summoned by Senegal on Saturday over a video published on Facebook in which Pyvovarov provided “unequivocal and unqualified support for the terrorist attack” in Mali.
Ukraine’s actions violated Malian sovereignty and constituted unacceptable foreign interference and support for international terrorism, according to Maiga.
