The defeat of the Wagner group against the Tuareg rebels in Mali is one of the heaviest in recent times. This can be concluded from messages on Telegram channels that are close to the group. It said: The defeat in Mali is the worst the Wagner group has suffered – outside of its operations in the war against Ukraine – since February 2018, when US military helicopters destroyed a similar convoy near the Syrian city of Qashma.
Mercenaries of the Russian private army were killed by rebels of the Tuareg tribe on July 27. On the northeastern border of the country, they destroyed the entire convoy, captured Wagner's mercenaries and destroyed their vehicles.
A coalition of Tuareg rebels operates in northern Mali under the name "Strategic Framework for the Defense of the Azawad People". Mercenaries of the Russian private army of the Wagner Group have been fighting on the side of the Malian government in recent years.
Where does the Ukrainian clue come from?
Among those killed in the attack was Nikita Feđanin, the author of the "Grey Zone" Telegram channel with over half a million subscribers. Feđanin reported on the Wagner group. Since February 20, there have been multiple announcements on that channel about the offensive in northeastern Mali. The latest post shows a group of mercenaries in front of the Typhoon armored vehicle.
Meanwhile, the Russian propaganda channel RT reported that Feđanin allegedly handed the channel photos showing Tuaregs being trained by members of the Ukrainian military intelligence service (HUR).
As RT reports, the training included the use of reconnaissance and attack drones. But the Russian channel showed only one photo of a fighter in front of a helicopter with his face covered and Ukrainian markings on his uniform.
Not long after, another photo was published by the Ukrainian newspaper "Kyiv Post". It shows armed men with the flags of the unrecognized Azawad state and Ukraine. However, some of the men, whose faces are obscured, are not wearing traditional Tuareg headscarves and, according to the paper, could be Ukrainian soldiers.
Profiles on the social network X, which probably belong to the Azawad rebels, offer, among other things, to hand over captured mercenaries to Kiev. Also, gratitude was expressed to the National Guard of Ukraine for the drones.
After all, HUR's Andriy Yusov confirmed that Ukrainian military intelligence was involved in the attack on Wagner's mercenaries in Mali.
"The rebels received the necessary information, and not only information, which allowed them to conduct a successful military operation against Russian war criminals," Yusov said on July 29.
What are Ukrainians doing in Mali?
Ukraine and Mali established diplomatic relations in 1992, but contacts were rare. Bilateral trade was also insignificant. According to Ukrainian statistics, it reached only about 41 million dollars in 2021. Between 2012 and 2019, there were attempts to agree on military-technical cooperation, but it remained at the draft level.
Since 2016, Ukrainian soldiers and civilian experts have participated in the UN peacekeeping operation in the Republic of Mali (MINUSMA) with a medical helicopter, and another 20 soldiers and six MI-8 helicopters joined them in 2019. However, they left the country last year due to the end of the UN mission.
Since then, nothing has been heard about the Ukrainian military presence in Mali.
"We need some time to analyze and confirm who is behind the attack on the Malian army and the Russian groups," Jean-François Marie Camara of the Faculty of Law in Bamako told Deutsche Welle (DW).
The groups claimed they were there to help Mali deal with the growing danger.
"I think, however, that Ukraine and its allies are doing everything they can to undermine Russia and try to weaken it economically," adds Kamara.
Wagner's mercenaries instead of peacemakers
The Tuareg coalition criticized the decision to terminate the UN mission, as it saw the end of attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully. She returned to the armed struggle for the independence of Azawad.
To fight against the coalition of Tuareg rebels, the Malian junta under the command of Colonel Asimi Goita decided to engage the Russian "Wagner group". It was already known in the region - through operations in neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Guinea and other African countries.
After the failed rebellion of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group's units were placed under the control of the Russian Ministry of Defense, as part of the so-called "Africa Corps".
Ukrainian military intelligence in action
In recent years, the opponents of the Vagner Group in Africa have also included Ukrainian military intelligence.
"We are conducting operations to weaken Russia's military potential wherever possible. Why should Africa be an exception?" Kirilo Budanov, head of HUR, told the Washington Post newspaper in April.
Then he revealed for the first time the details of the operation in Sudan from the fall of 2023. According to the Wall Street Journal, the head of the country's transitional council, Abdel Fatah al-Burhan, asked for help from Kiev. It is also stated that about a hundred HUR members helped him to evacuate from the capital Khartoum.
"Disruption of Russian presence in Sudan"
Ukrainian units were engaged in Sudan during the fall: disrupting rebel logistics, mining roads to Khartoum and carrying out nighttime drone strikes.
"Our goal was never to track down individual Wagner mercenaries. The goal was to disrupt Russian interests in Sudan," a Ukrainian intelligence official told the Wall Street Journal.
During 2023 and 2024, HUR also declared the presence of the "Wagner Group" in other African countries. He warned of possible provocations and the appearance of Western weapons in Africa that were seized by the Russians during the war in Ukraine.
"If the participation of Ukrainian forces in Mali is confirmed, then it means that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is not limited to Ukrainian territory, but also spreads to other places, especially to Africa," Nina Vilen, an expert on Africa from of the Brussels Egmont Institute.
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