Mali Breaks Off Diplomatic Relations with Ukraine After Kyiv 'Admits Involvement in Attack by Terrorist Groups'

Mali announced on Sunday, August 4, that it was severing diplomatic ties with Ukraine, accusing a high-ranking Ukrainian official of acknowledging Kyiv's involvement in a significant defeat suffered by Malian troops in July.

Among those killed in the late July defeat in northern Mali were members of the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Mali's military leaders have attributed the loss to "separatists and jihadists."

A government spokesman for Mali, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, said that Bamako would cut off relations with Kyiv “with immediate effect” after Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) admitted its role in defeating Russian mercenary troops who were helping to defend Mali’s murderous military junta, by providing intelligence to the rebel Tuaregs.

On Ukrainian television on July 29, HUR spokesman Andriy Yusov said it was plainly obvious that the rebels “had received the necessary data that allowed them to carry out their operation against the Russian war criminals.”

The same day, Kyiv Post published an exclusive photo of Tuareg rebels posing with a Ukrainian flag after having just dealt a major defeat to Russian state-funded Wagner mercenaries in Mali.

Yusov had "admitted Ukraine's involvement in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups" that had led to the deaths of Malian soldiers, Maiga's statement added.

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The announcement comes with the promise of further support and follows criticism within Australia of the government’s slowness to act.

Wagner mercenaries have helped the Russian government extract natural resources in Africa, including, according to The Blood Gold Report, an estimated $2.5 billion worth of gold in the past two years, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin has used to help fund his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ongoing since February 2022.

Tuareg-led separatists said on July 26 that they had killed some 20 Wagner troops, and last Thursday they announced they had killed 84 Wagner fighters and 47 Malian soldiers, AFP reported.

The Kremlin-allied junta specified that Kyiv’s actions had violated Malian sovereignty and amounted to “support for international terrorism,” Col. Maiga’s statement read.