
United Nations sanctions in Mali are ending after Russia vetoed extending them and maintaining a team of United Nations experts there, after they claimed that foreign forces were involved in abuses – a reference to Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.
Russia was the only of the UN Security Council's 15 members to veto a French and United Arab Emirates-led proposal that would have extended targeted sanctions in Mali by a year and kept the panel of independent monitors in place. China abstained from the vote.