Tuareg rebels in Mali have been photographed holding a Ukrainian flag after killing dozens of Russians from the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC). Photo: Kyiv Post.
By Habib Lassoued – Aug 5, 2024
Ukraine’s entry into the Sahel-Saharan war provides new confirmation that the region has become a playground for international conflict.
Kiev sees Mali as an opportunity for revenge
Ukraine entered the geopolitical conflict in the Sahel region when it officially announced its support for Tuareg separatists and members of the Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin group during a military operation in northern Mali, which led to the killing of a number of government soldiers and militants of the Russian Wagner Group.
Ukraine’s entry into the war provides new confirmation that the Sahel-Saharan region has turned into a playground for international conflict. It also reveals that Kiev, which has failed to make territorial gains against the Russians on its own territory, sees in Mali an opportunity to retaliate against the Wagner Group, which was instrumental in the Ukrainian retreat at the beginning of the war.
Andrei Yusupov, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, said that the Malian rebels received the necessary intelligence that enabled a successful military operation against what he called Russian war criminals.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Dakar published a video clip on social media in which the Ukrainian intelligence representative confirmed that the Tuareg received all the necessary information during their clashes with the Malian army and the Wagner detachment, which indicates that the separatists and extremists rely on accurate images and maps about the movements of government forces and Wagner militants obtained through satellites, which indicates that the separatists and extremists rely on accurate images and maps about the movements of government forces and Wagner militants.
Following Yusuf’s statements, Mali’s transitional government announced the severance of diplomatic relations with immediate effect with Ukraine, which said that its fate was unfortunately in the hands of puppets that confuse the international and regional arenas.
But Ukraine denied on Monday that it was involved in the fighting in northern Mali, calling the decision to sever diplomatic ties “short-sighted and hasty.”
The Senegalese Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s ambassador to Dakar, Yuri Pivovarov, over a post on the embassy’s Facebook page in which the Ukrainian diplomat expressed support for Tuareg rebels in Mali after they destroyed a Wagner detachment.
It said it summoned the ambassador to remind him of “the obligations of discretion, restraint and non-interference that must accompany the gravity and seriousness of his mission.”
Observers point out that the Ukrainian move is not isolated, and that it is part of the reaction of Western capitals working to spread chaos in the Sahel countries, which during the past period expelled French forces and blocked the road to Paris’ interests, while welcoming the expansion of Russian influence in countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
Observers wonder who facilitated the Ukrainians’ entry into a highly security-sensitive region, considering that this could not be done without support from a country bordering Mali, or by utilizing support and backing networks linked to influential countries in the region.
There was earlier talk of a Ukrainian entry into the Sudanese war in recent months to help the army forces against the Rapid Support Fighters, and then move to northern Mali to support separatists and militant groups against government forces and their Russian allies.
An unconfirmed photo of Tuareg fighters carrying a Ukrainian flag has been circulating online. “They received the necessary information that enabled them to carry out a successful military operation against Russian war criminals,” Yusuf said on Ukrainian television last week.
At the same time he announced other operations of the same kind in Africa. “The monopoly of Russian private armies in Africa is coming to an end and opposing forces are beginning to show that they can put these criminals in their place,” the intelligence official said.
Burkina Faso Condemns Publication of Video by Ukrainian Army Supporting Terrorists in Mali
According to the Tuareg separatists, 84 Russian mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers were killed during several days of fighting at the end of July around the village of Ten Zautin on the border with Algeria. Some quarters said that the rebels had proposed handing over the Wagner fighters in their custody to Kiev as a form of payback.
Mali called on the international community to take responsibility in the face of Ukraine’s deliberate choice to support terrorism, called on peace-loving African countries and peoples to condemn these subversive acts that threaten the stability of the African continent, and reiterated its thanks to the countries that have shown solidarity with it in the face of terrorist attacks committed with the help of foreign sponsors.
“This aggression by Ukraine is part of a broader pattern of certain actors that support and exploit armed terrorist groups, allied with rebel groups, for the purposes of domination and neo-colonialism and to break the dynamic of liberation, restoration of sovereignty and socio-economic development initiated by the Union of Sahelian States,” said the Transitional Government of the Republic of Mali.
