The United States on May 25 imposed sanctions on the head of the Wagner Group in Mali, accusing the Russian private army of trying to obscure its efforts to acquire military equipment for use in Ukraine, and of working through Mali and other countries. The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement also accused Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov, who it described as the head of Wagner paramilitary units and its principal administrator based in Mali, of working in close coordination with Malian government officials to execute the group's deployment in Mali.