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Burkina Faso said Kiev’s praise of a terrorist attack in Mali targeting a Russian military contractor was a “false choice”.
The Burkina Faso Foreign Ministry has condemned Ukraine for praising last month’s terrorist attacks against Malian servicemen and Russian military contractors. The ministry said Kiev should not go against the international community, which is unanimous in condemning terrorism.
A military convoy carrying members of the Russian private military company Wagner Group and Malian soldiers Hurt In late July, insurgents launched attacks in Mali that killed dozens of people. Earlier this week, Andrei Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, boasted that his agents had helped plan attacks “against Russian war criminals” and vowed that “there will be more” of the same. The Ukrainian Embassy in Senegal shared Yusov’s interview on its Facebook page, with Ambassador Yuri Pivovarov also hinting at further action against Wagner in a caption on the post. The video has since been deleted.
Burkina Faso, which is also beset by insurgents, dismissed Pivovarov’s comments as a justification for terrorism and called on the international community to strongly condemn Ukraine’s “subversive actions that threaten the stability of the continent.”
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also said that Ukraine should stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and be “clear-headed” about its anti-terrorism stance.
“Terrorist groups that are carrying out massacres, killings, rapes and looting in northern Mali and throughout the Sahel-Sahara region threaten international peace and security. Ukraine should not fight the wrong battles and should not provide any form of support to these terrorists,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.
Senegal’s foreign ministry also criticised the Ukrainian embassy’s support for the attack, accusing Kiev of trying to “destabilise” Mali.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have been ravaged by jihadists for years. Sporadic attacks by al-Qaeda and Islamic State factions have killed thousands of people. Earlier this year, the three countries formed a security group, the Alliance for the Sahel (AES), to assist each other in fighting the insurgents. They are also seeking to strengthen security cooperation with Russia.
Wagner militants are believed to have been operating in Mali and Burkina Faso for years, providing support to government forces. Members of the group have also previously taken part in Russian operations in Ukraine.
（RT.com）
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