Mali blamed Ukraine for the defeat in the battle with the militants
Mali announced in July that it was severing diplomatic ties with Ukraine, citing high-ranking Ukrainian officials as instrumental in the heavy defeat of government forces in a battle with the militants.
Mali announced in July that it would sever diplomatic ties with Ukraine, calling on Kiev to acknowledge the role played by senior Ukrainian officials in the heavy defeat of government forces in a battle with the militants, Arab News reported.
Mali will cut ties "immediately," government spokesman Col. Abdoulaye Maiga said.
The government of Mali was surprised by the words of Andrey Yusov, the spokesman of the Ukrainian military intelligence agency GUR, Mayga added.
Yusov "recognized Ukraine's participation in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups," May said, adding that the attack resulted in the deaths of Malian soldiers.
Speaking on Ukrainian television, Yusov said that the whole world knows that the rebels "received the necessary intelligence that allowed them to conduct an operation against Russian war criminals."
Ukraine's actions have violated Mali's sovereignty and constitute unacceptable foreign interference and support for international terrorism, Maya said in a statement.
Let us remind you that on July 25, three days of intense fighting began in the military camp in Tinzaouten near the Algerian border. Tuareg-led separatists said Thursday that 84 mercenaries from the private military company Wagner and 47 soldiers from Malian government forces had been killed.
In a video released by AFP on Friday, Mali's Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla admitted to Mai that they had lost the "battle" of Tinzauaten. He acknowledged that the Malian army had suffered "a large number" of casualties during the fighting, but did not disclose the numbers.
This week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated his support for Bamako in a telephone conversation with his Malian counterpart Abdoulaye Diop.
The West African nation's military leaders, who seized power in a 2020 coup, have made it a priority to retake the entire country from separatists and jihadist forces affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Led by Colonel Assimi Goita, the junta broke its traditional alliance with former colonial power France and turned to Russia.
