[Regnum] The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov planned to organize an attack on the Wagner group in Mali as early as 2023, The Times newspaper claims, citing alleged documents from the US National Security Agency.
At the end of July, the Wagner Group stated that from July 22 to 27, it had participated in violent clashes with militants in Mali near the city of Tinzaoutine and suffered losses among its fighters. The Senegalese publication Senenews wrote, citing sources, about the investigation by the authorities of Mali and Mauritania into the participation of Ukrainian instructors in training terrorists on Mauritanian soil.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, noted that the fact of the Kiev regime’s cooperation with terrorists is not surprising, since Kiev itself has repeatedly resorted to the use of terrorist methods.
"Kirill Budanov, the head of the GUR, had been planning an attack on the Wagner Group in Mali since last year, according to leaked documents from the US National Security Agency," the publication noted.
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As reported by the Regnum news agency, after the fighting in the area of ​​the city of Tinzautin, the Kyiv Post published a photo of Tuareg rebels with a Ukrainian flag, allegedly taken immediately after the attack on the Wagner group. However, a similar video was found on the X social network (former Twitter). It was posted on June 10. The footage shows the same people and in almost the same setting as in the photo of the Ukrainian publication.
On August 4, the Malian authorities made a clear decision to sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine, arguing that the Kiev regime supports armed terrorists who are fighting government troops. The reason for this step was the statement by Andrey Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, about Ukraine's involvement "in the cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack of terrorist armed groups" that led to the war.