West African juntas have complained to the UN about Ukraineʼs alleged support for the Tuareg rebels, who killed dozens of Wagner mercenaries

The military juntas of West African countries sent a letter to the UN Security Council, in which they condemned Ukraineʼs alleged support for the Tuareg rebels, who killed dozens of Russian mercenaries of the PMC "Wagner" in northern Mali last month.

The letter was published by the Sahel Alliance.

In the document, the heads of the ministries of foreign affairs of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso "strongly condemned the alleged open support of international terrorism" by the Ukrainian government and called on the Security Council to "take responsibility" for Ukraineʼs actions and prevent "subversive actions" that threaten regional and continental stability.

What preceded

On July 28, it became known that the Tuareg rebels killed and wounded dozens of mercenaries of the PMC “Wagner”. During the shooting, the author of the well-known "Wagner" Telegram channel “Gray Zone” Nikita with the call sign "White" [“Belyi”] and a number of influential commanders were killed. The death of the Wagnerians in Mali was confirmed by the Russian Telegram channel “Razgruzka Wagner”, which is associated with the leadership of the PMC “Wagner”.

After that, the Tuareg rebels published an appeal to Ukrainians in Ukrainian. They expressed solidarity with Ukraine in the fight against Russia and offered to hand over the captured mercenaries of the PMC "Wagner".

On August 5, Mali severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine. The transitional government was outraged by the words of the representative of Ukrainian intelligence Andriy Yusov, which allegedly indicated support for the Tuareg rebels — in one of his broadcasts, Yusov said that the Tuareg rebels "received the necessary information that allowed them to conduct a successful operation against Russian war criminals."

The agency also accused the Ukrainian government of aggression and undermining the sovereignty of Mali. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called this step "short-sighted and hasty". Following Mali, Niger severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine on August 7, accusing Kyiv of supporting "terrorist groups."

Instead, the rebels denied Ukraineʼs help in defeating the "Wagnerians". They stated that they did not receive any external help in fighting the countryʼs army and mercenaries.