On Sunday Mali cut off ties with Ukraine owing to a statement 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.
Mali will break off relations “with immediate effect,” said Mali’s spokesman Col. Abdoulaye Maiga.
The statement, which allegedly acknowledged Kyiv’s involvement in the massive casualties Malian forces endured in July, prompted Mali to severe diplomatic ties with the Eastern European nation.
“The rebels received all the necessary information they needed, and not just the information, which allowed (them) to conduct a successful military operation against Russian perpetrators of war crimes. We certainly won’t go into details now – you will see more of this in the future,” the GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov had stated via comments published on public broadcaster Suspilne’s website on Monday, July 29,
As reported by the American news agency, Reuters, after days of intense fighting in the north of Mali, the Tuareg rebels in the Northern part of the West African country claim to have killed at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers.
This has been Wagner’s worst defeat since it got involved two years ago to assist Mali’s military in their fight against rebel groups.
As seen in the report by Reuters, Mali said it had learned “with deep shock of the subversive remarks.”
“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,” the Malian government stated.
“The actions taken by the Ukrainian authorities violate the sovereignty of Mali, go beyond the scope of foreign interference, which is already condemnable in itself, and constitute a clear aggression by Mali and support for international terrorism,” it added.
