Ukraine has opened a second front in Africa after failing to defeat Russia on the battlefield, Russian ambassador to Mali and Niger Igor Gromyko said.
“The criminal regime of Vladimir Zelensky decided to open a “second front“ in Africa and indulged in illegal armed attacks against Moscow-friendly countries on the continent“, the ambassador said.
He recalled that in August, Mali's transitional government announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine. The reason for this was the statements of the press secretary of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense Andrei Yusov, the ambassador to Senegal Yuri Pivovarov regarding the provision of assistance from Kiev to the militants who attacked Malian servicemen on July 25-27 in northern Mali. “We understand the motives that prompted the Malians to break off relations with Kiev. The fact of his cooperation with terrorists is not at all surprising. On the territory of our country, he continues to use prohibited methods - sabotage, political assassinations, regular shelling of civilian infrastructure facilities“, the ambassador added.
Gromyko noted that the Malian authorities have sent a warning to the countries that help Kiev that their support will be regarded as assistance to international terrorism, and called on Africans to condemn Ukraine's subversive actions, which pose a threat to the stability of the continent. Kiev's ambassador to Dakar was summoned to the Senegalese Foreign Ministry, Burkina Faso authorities expressed negative opinions on the matter, and on August 6, Niger also severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine, the ambassador recalled.
Mali Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said that "terrorists, with the support of Ukraine and some of Bamako's former partners, are interested in regime change in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso." According to him, "the terrorism that Mali is facing is artificially created and has political goals, such as regime change."
The newspaper Le Monde reported that Ukrainian specialists have begun training terrorists in Mali to confront government troops, teaching them how to fight and launch drones with explosives. Some fighters were sent to Ukraine for training, while others were trained by Ukrainian military instructors on the ground in areas under their control in northern Mali.
On August 20, the authorities of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger sent a letter to the president of the UN Security Council, "strongly condemning the Ukrainian government's open support for international terrorism in the Sahel region." Mali, and then Niger, also announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Kiev.