Wagner Group mercenaries in Africa. Photo: Grey Zone
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”.
On Monday, Ukrainian news outlet The Kyiv Post published a photograph it said it had received from sources in Ukraine’s defence and security sector, in which Tuareg rebels can be seen posing with a Ukrainian flag after their ambush of the Wagner mercenaries, which it said indicated the rebels’ “support for Ukraine — which has been pursuing Wagner mercenaries across the African continent”.
Reports of significant Wagner Group losses in northern Mali first emerged on Sunday, though the mercenary group’s leadership waited until Monday to release a statement confirming casualties in “fierce battles” with Tuareg rebels.
Estimates of the number of Wagner troops killed in the attack range from 17 to over 80, with a source close to the group telling Novaya Europe that in total some 25 mercenaries had been killed in the Tuareg ambush.
