News - 2nd African country ends diplomatic relations with Ukraine

Niger said Tuesday it was cutting diplomatic ties with Ukraine “with immediate effect,” accusing Kyiv of supporting “terrorist groups,” two days after Mali took a similar step, reports Al Arabiya. Niger said it would ask the UN Security Council to debate Ukraine’s “aggression,” government spokesman Amadou Abdramane said in a televised statement. Mali’s government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said Sunday that Mali broke off relations following remarks by Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency the GUR, that Kyiv helped the Tuareg of Mali to carry out a military operation against the mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group. “The government of the Republic of Niger, in total solidarity with the government and people of Mali, decides in complete sovereignty to sever diplomatic relations between the Republic of Niger and Ukraine with immediate effect,” Abdramane said. As reported earlier, the authorities of Mali on Monday announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine because Kyiv supports the Tuareg rebels. "The actions of the authorities of Ukraine violate Mali's sovereignty and are an obvious aggression towards Mali and a support for international terrorism," the Mali government statement had said. Also, the authorities of Mali emphasized that until now they were taking a neutral position regarding the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but now they consider the actions of the Kyiv authorities as "Nazi and malicious."