Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba embarked on a tour of Africa for the fourth time in two years on Sunday, August 4. After visiting Malawi on Monday, he will visit Zambia and Mauritius next. The stated aim is the "development of bilateral relations" with African countries, according to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, and involve them "in global efforts to restore a just peace for Ukraine and the world." This "African Strategy" is intended to counter Russia's growing influence, but Kyiv is struggling to implement it.
Just as Kuleba set foot in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, Mali announced the termination "with immediate effect" of diplomatic relations with Kyiv. The day before, Senegal, although not as close to Moscow as Bamako is, indicated that it had summoned the Ukrainian ambassador posted in Dakar. These reactions follow revelations of Ukrainian involvement in recent fighting in northern Mali.
Following the heavy defeat inflicted by separatist rebels on the Malian army and its Russian ally the Wagner Group at the end of July, Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov suggested on national television that Ukrainian services had played a role in the fighting. Eighty-four mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers were killed, according to the rebels – the first time this had happened since the Wagner Group arrived in Mali in 2021.
"That the rebels received the necessary data to successfully carry out an operation against Russian war criminals has been observed by the entire world. Of course, we will not disclose details. More information to come," Yusov said.
In the summer of 2023, Ukraine had already taken action on African military terrain by deploying a group of soldiers to Khartoum to fight the Moscow-allied general Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo's (widely known as "Hemedti") forces. In Mali, aid to the rebellion has consisted of intelligence and training in drone handling, Le Monde has found. For the Malian junta, however, this constitutes "blatant aggression" and "support for international terrorism" – accusations that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has firmly rejected.
On Monday, August 5, the ministry criticized Mali's "short-sighted and hasty" decision to break off diplomatic relations, which "ignored" the fact that "military structures controlled by the Kremlin, including 'Wagner', use terrorist methods and are directly involved in numerous war crimes, killings of civilians and ill-treatment of prisoners of war both in Ukraine and in African countries."
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