Key intelligence that helped Tuareg rebels in northern Mali plan an ambush that killed dozens of Russian Wagner Group mercenaries last week was supplied by Kyiv, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate spokesperson Andriy Yusov told Rada TV, the official channel of the Ukrainian parliament, on Monday.
Yusov said Ukraine had provided the rebel coalition with “necessary information — and not just information — which allowed them to carry out a successful military operation against the Russian war criminals” and, while refusing to elaborate on the nature of Kyiv’s support, hinted that there would be “more to come”.
Describing the deadly assault on the Wagner troops in northern Mali as a blow to the influence of both the group and Russia’s influence in Africa on the whole, Yusov said there would now be “fewer new orders and less reliance on them as a tool for solving problems in the region”.
When asked about rumours that the Tuareg rebels had offered to hand over a number of captured Wagner mercenaries to Kyiv, Yusov was evasive, saying only that “Russian war criminals” would “receive just punishment … wherever they are”.