In videos widely shared on social media, dozens of bodies lie lifeless in the desert. All around are the carcasses of burnt-out pick-ups and vehicles, some still smoking. On Saturday, July 27, a convoy of the Malian army and its Russian auxiliaries from the Wagner Group was ambushed by pro-independence rebels from the Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA) near Tin Zaouatine, a town straddling the border between Mali and Algeria.
Difficult to estimate precisely, the toll was heavy for Wagner's mercenaries. According to a CSP-DPA military leader, some 50 paramilitaries were killed and two taken prisoner, making Tin Zaouatine the worst defeat for the group since it arrived in Mali in late 2021 at the request of the ruling junta.
On Monday, 48 hours after the battle, Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence service (GUR), made a statement that did not go unnoticed. During a broadcast on a local TV channel, he suggested that his services were collaborating with the rebels operating in northern Mali. According to him, they had "received useful information, and not just that which allowed them to carry out a successful military operation against Russian war criminals." "We certainly won't talk about the details just yet," he said.
According to one rebel commander, "exchanges" are indeed taking place with Ukrainian intelligence services to see how they can cooperate. "We have links with the Ukrainians, but just as we have with everyone else, the French, Americans and others," said a spokesman for the CSP-DPA Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane. Since being ousted by the Malian army and Wagner from their historic stronghold of Kidal in northern Mali in November 2023, the rebels have been forced to reorganize to continue their fight against the ruling junta in Bamako.
For their part, the Ukrainian authorities, who claim to be at war with Russia in every theater, have made targeting Russian paramilitaries a strategic objective. Therefore, in November 2023, videos made public by the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper, revealed that they had opened a new front in Africa by sending Special Forces commandos to Sudan to counter Russian mercenaries supporting General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Homemade drones loaded with explosives
"With the Ukrainians, we face the same Russian threat. So, naturally, we have to show solidarity. We have to share information on Wagner's capabilities and modus operandi. The Ukrainians have promised to go further," said a CSP-DPA executive. According to corroborating sources, the cooperation is not limited to intelligence sharing: The Ukrainian special services have trained Malian rebels in the handling of small homemade drones loaded with explosives, an aerial weapon regularly used in their war against the Russian army. As CNN revealed, this type of drone had already been used against Wagner fighters near Khartoum in September 2023.
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