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Kyiv counts diplomatic costs of ambush boasts

Bamako has cut ties with Ukraine, accusing it of complicity in an attack that killed Malian soldiers and 50 Russian Wagner operatives

The Cold War politics in the Sahel has been given fresh heat after Mali announced it was severing ties with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of involvement in a deadly ambush in the West African country’s northern Kidal region in late July (AC Vol 65 No 16, Moscow sees a year of transition).

In a statement on 28 July, Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) said that a ‘complex ambush’ had killed 50 Russian Wagner operatives and a number of Malian soldiers. They also published videos showing several vehicles ablaze, as well as dozens of bodies, in a humiliating defeat for both Mali and Russia.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military spy agency then commented that the rebels had the ‘necessary information’ to execute the attack. Though Kyiv later tried to backtrack, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, Mali’s government spokesperson retorted on 11 August that Ukraine had ‘violated Malian sovereignty’ by aiding the ‘cowardly, treacherous, and barbaric attack’.

Niger has also cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine, while Senegal summoned the Ukrainian ambassador in Dakar for posting videos allegedly supporting the attack.

Russia, meanwhile, has accused Ukraine of ‘pandering to terror groups’ and opening ‘a second front in Africa’.

Though many security analysts believe that it is likely that Ukraine had a role in the ambush, it looks like very clumsy diplomacy by Kyiv which has sought to develop allies and a larger diplomatic presence across Africa (Dispatches 16/4/24, Kyiv steps up its diplomatic effort). Instead, it appears to have cemented Russia’s close relations with the Sahelian juntas.

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