More than 5 thousand kilometers separate Ukraine from the new stage of the conflict with Russia. Malian African country where the Wagners have been operating since 2022 with the aim of gaining allies and influence, is now seeing Ukrainian-backed militias struggle to defeat the Russian-backed groups. It was not long before Russia accused Ukraine of opening a “second front” of combat in Africa, supporting “terrorist groups”, just days after Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and the Malian army suffered significant losses in northern Mali.

On Monday, the North African country announced the Immediate cut off of diplomatic relations with Ukraine.claiming that kyiv is supporting rebel factions in the country. The decision was made after the spokesman for the Ukrainian military secret services (GUR), Andriy Yusov, referred to the clashes in northern Mali that led to the deaths of several soldiers of the armed forces and fighters of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which was involved in the fighting in Ukraine.

Yusov, quoted by Reuters, revealed that the Tuareg rebels received the “necessary” information to launch the attack. In Mali, the Ukrainian official’s words were received with disgust: “They are a admission of Ukraine’s participation in a barbaric, cowardly and treacherous attack by an armed terrorist group that resulted in the death of members of the defense and security forces.”

A spokesman for the Malian government said that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities “violate Mali’s sovereignty” and “go beyond any foreign interference, which is in itself reprehensible, and constitute a clear aggression against Mali and support for international terrorism.”

How the Tuareg defeated the Wagners with the help of Ukraine

On July 30, the Wagner mercenary group, fighting alongside the Malian military junta, was ambushed by Tuareg rebels in the northeast of the country. Russian casualties were enough to end the battle in victory for the opponents, but the credit was not exclusively theirs.

Ukraine’s defense secret services provided information to the separatists that “allowed a successful military operation against Russian war criminals.” Only on Monday did both the Malian army and the Wagner Group admit to having suffered “a large number of casualties.”

Wagner Group mercenaries are present in several African countries and serve as the armed wing of Russia’s diplomatic offensive to make allies in Africa, helping several regimes with little military capacity to fight enemies in internal wars. The Russian group has already been accused by the UN of being responsible for massacres with hundreds of victims in Mali.

Russia has been operating in Mali since 2022. Ukraine saw the strategic opportunity two years later

In 2022, the Malian junta broke its long-standing alliance with France and its European partners to turn militarily and politically towards Russia. In the context of its attack on Ukraine, launched in February 2022, Russia has stepped up its diplomatic efforts in Africa to compete with the West in countries that have traditionally been its allies.

In June 2023, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained that elements of the Wagner Group were in those two African countries “as instructors” and that the work carried out by them would continue, even after Wagner Group mercenaries, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, launched an armed rebellion against Moscow.

Wagner Group to continue operations in Mali and Central African Republic, Russian multinational confirms

Two months later, Prigozhin died when the plane he was travelling on crashed. The death of the mercenary, associated with the attempted rebellion against Vladimir Putin’s regime, did not affect the Wagners’ activities in Africa and more specifically in Mali.

Now it is Ukraine’s turn to look to Africa and see opportunities. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba this week began a diplomatic tour of three African countries in an effort to drum up support for Kiev’s stance against Russia. He will visit Malawi, Zambia and Mauritius on a trip that began on the 4th and ends on Thursday, the Ukrainian ministry said in a statement cited by Reuters.

“All meetings will focus on developing bilateral relations based on mutual respect and interests. Among the main topics will be the participation of African states in global efforts to restore a just peace for Ukraine and the world,” he said.

As Le Monde recalls, in the summer of 2023 Ukraine had already taken action on African military ground, sending a group of soldiers to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, to fight against the forces of General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (known as “Hemedti”), an ally of Moscow. In Mali, aid to the rebellion consisted of information and training in the use of drones.

Russia says Ukraine is opening a “second front” in Africa because it is “unable” to win on the battlefield

Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine of opening a “second front” in Africa by supporting “terrorist groups.” “Unable to defeat Russia on the battlefield, the criminal Zelensky regime has decided to open a ‘second front’ in Africa and is supporting terrorist groups in Moscow-friendly states on the continent,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Ria.

His comments come more than a week after the attack in Mali that killed dozens of Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers. Analysts agree that this defeat is the heaviest suffered by the Wagner group in a single battle in Africa. In the wake of these unprecedented events, a Ukrainian military intelligence officer, Andriï Youssov, hinted that kyiv had provided information to the rebels so they could carry out their attack.

These statements provoked the anger of the Malian authorities, who accused Youssov of having “confessed to Ukraine’s participation in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack”, criticising Kiev for “supporting international terrorism”.