According to Mali’s foreign ministry, the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali have denounced what they perceive as Ukraine’s backing of rebel groups in the Sahel region of West Africa in a letter sent to the UN Security Council.

After remarks made by Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, regarding the combat in northern Mali that claimed the lives of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group in late July, Mali severed diplomatic ties with Ukraine in early August.

A few days later, in support of its neighbour, the Nigeran military administration did the same. According to what Yusov indicated, the “rebels” in Mali had gotten all the info they needed “to conduct a successful military operation”.

Since Mali and Niger took Yusov’s statements to mean that Ukraine was directly involved in the conflict, they accused Ukraine of aiding international terrorism.

The Ukrainian government has always denied the claims. A request for a response on Wednesday went unanswered by the foreign ministry. After more than two years of Russian invasion, the country is still deeply embroiled in severe conflict.

According to a Tuareg rebel organisation, they were also not supported by the Ukrainians. North Mali is home to both ethnic Tuareg rebels and Islamic fighters. In July, there was intense fighting that the Tuareg claimed resulted in the deaths of 84 Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers.

Separately, an Al Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility for the attack that killed ten Malian soldiers and fifty Wagner mercenaries on one of those days.

The foreign ministers of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso penned a letter to the Security Council, urging it to “take responsibility” for the activities of Ukraine and to avert “subversive acts” that endanger stability in the area and the continent.

The foreign ministry of Mali shared the letter’s wording on their social media account. It was reportedly sent out to the fifteen-person Security Council on Tuesday night, according to diplomats.

During the last four years, juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have sided with Russia, which is currently in a war with Ukraine, rather than their long-standing Western and regional friends.

The assaults in July in the northern Kidal region of Mali, close to the Algerian border, may have been Wagner’s worst setback since it intervened two years ago to assist the junta in its struggle against Islamic rebels.

A distinct ethnic group residing in the Sahara region, which includes portions of Northern Mali, are the Tuareg. In 2012, Islamist militant groups took control of an insurgency that Tuareg separatists had started. The rebels were later driven back into the dry north of Mali.