Malian Rebels Allegedly Received Intelligence from Ukraine to Ambush Wagner Group Fighters, Says Ukrainian GUR.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, GUR, has claimed involvement in an ambush that resulted in the deaths of fighters from Russia’s Wagner Group in Mali, West Africa—thousands of miles from the Ukrainian frontlines.
On Monday, a Telegram channel associated with the Wagner leadership admitted that the group had suffered significant losses during recent clashes in Mali.
The channel reported that Wagner, alongside the Malian armed forces, engaged in intense battles over five days against a coalition of Tuareg separatist forces and jihadist groups. These groups reportedly used heavy weapons, drones, and suicide bombers, resulting in numerous Wagner casualties, including the death of commander Sergei Shevchenko.
Andrii Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s GUR, stated on Monday that “the rebels received necessary information, and not just information, which enabled a successful military operation against Russian war criminals.”
Yusov refrained from commenting on whether Ukrainian military personnel were directly involved in the fighting or present in Mali, stating that the agency “won’t discuss the details at the moment, but there will be more to come.”
The Malian government, struggling with various insurgencies in the north for over a decade, sought assistance from Wagner after a military junta assumed power in 2020.
In May of the previous year, the United States imposed sanctions on the head of Wagner in Mali, accusing the group of using its operations as a conduit for military equipment to aid the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, the Kyiv Post published a photograph purportedly showing Malian rebels holding a Ukrainian flag, claiming it was authenticated by a defense source in Kyiv. Independent verification of the image was not possible at the time.
There are beliefs that Ukrainian forces are also active in Sudan, another region where Wagner troops are heavily involved, indicating that Kyiv’s conflict with Moscow has expanded globally.
Founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an acquaintance of Vladimir Putin, the Wagner Group was established to allow Moscow to intervene in conflicts without officially deploying the Russian military. The group has been pivotal in some of the most intense fighting in Ukraine, often utilizing former prisoners who were pardoned in exchange for frontline service.
Despite Prigozhin’s downfall following a failed coup attempt last summer and his subsequent death in a plane explosion—believed to be orchestrated by the Kremlin—Wagner continues to wield influence across Africa.
Serhii Kuzan, director of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center in Kyiv, explained why Ukraine might target Wagner in Africa, stating that Moscow views these African regions as zones of interest for resources such as gold, diamonds, gas, and oil, which finance Russian aggression.
Kuzan outlined additional benefits for Ukraine in these operations: “liquidating” some of the most seasoned Wagner fighters, reducing the group’s overall military capability, and avenging war crimes committed in Ukraine.
He emphasized, “A significant part of the destroyed fighters gained military experience in Ukraine, where they carried out hundreds or thousands of war crimes … these crimes should be punished, and Russian war criminals should know that they will never be safe.”
