Mali’s transitional government has broken off diplomatic relations with Ukraine.

The move, which was announced on Sunday evening, follows a rebel attack in the country that left dozens of Malian soldiers and Russian mercenaries dead.

A representative of the Ukrainian military intelligence service had previously said that Kiev had helped the rebel Tuareg in an ambush on a convoy of the Malian army.

The Wagner mercenaries supported them over a week ago.

As a consequence, Mali will in the future regard support for Ukraine as support for international terrorism, the statement continued.

An unconfirmed photo showing Tuareg fighters with a Ukrainian flag was also circulating on the internet.

“They have received the necessary information to enable them to carry out a successful military operation against the Russian war criminals,” said Andriy Yusov on Ukrainian television last week.

At the same time, he announced further operations of this kind in Africa.

“The monopoly of the Russian private armies in Africa is coming to an end, and opposing forces are emerging that can put these criminals in their place,’’ said the intelligence officer.

According to the separatist Tuareg, 84 Russian mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers were killed in several days of fighting at the end of July around the village of Tinzaouatène on the border with Algeria.

There was also talk of more than 80 casualties on Wagner-affiliated channels, representing the heaviest Russian losses to date in West Africa.

The Islamist terrorist group GSIM, which is allied with al-Qaeda, also attacked the convoy.

Whether the Tuareg cooperated with the Islamists remained unconfirmed. 

(dpa/NAN)