The Diplomat Ukraine's foreign ministry described as "short-sighted and hasty" the recent decision by Mali's military junta to sever diplomatic relations on the grounds that Kyiv had admitted collaboration with Tuareg rebels in the north African country, who recently killed 47 Malian servicemen and 84 mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group in an ambush. The Ukrainian government yesterday regretted the severance of diplomatic relations "without providing any evidence of Ukraine's involvement in the incident". At the same time, Kyiv reproaches the Malian government for ignoring that the Wagner Group and "other military structures under Kremlin control" use "terrorist methods and are directly involved in numerous war crimes, killings of civilians and cruel treatment of prisoners of war, both in Ukraine and in several African countries". Mali's military junta announced on Sunday the severance of its bilateral relations with the Ukrainian government after Ukrainian military intelligence service spokesman Andrei Yusov admitted Kyiv's collaboration with Tuareg rebels in northern Mali. In a statement issued by its spokesman, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, Mali's transitional government claimed to have "taken note, with deep astonishment, of the subversive statements by which Yusov admitted Ukraine's participation in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups that resulted in the deaths of elements of the Malian Defence and Security Forces". According to the statement, "these statements were reinforced by the Ukrainian ambassador to Senegal, Yurii Pyvovarov, who openly and without the slightest hesitation showed his country's support for international terrorism, particularly in Mali". "Worse still, in their comments these Ukrainian officials announced other 'results' to come," he added.
