Ukraine is fighting Russia anywhere it can – even in the deserts of Africa

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN

(CNN) — The conditions are grueling. Temperatures regularly soar above 110 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, then drop sharply overnight. Water is scarce and the dust and sand get everywhere. But at least they are working above ground. This elite group of Ukrainian drone operators has spent years hunting Russians from dugouts in Ukraine. They are still doing the same – but in the desert in northern Mali.

Some 15 Ukrainian specialists have been deployed to the junta-led country in Africa’s Sahel region to assist local rebel forces who are fighting Russian troops – part of Kyiv’s mission to weaken its enemy wherever it operates. And Kyiv has also branched out to other theaters of conflict, capitalizing on its hard-won expertise in drone warfare to forge new anti-Russian partnerships.

Speaking to Ukrainian soldiers and officers involved in operations in Mali and Libya, CNN can reveal for the first time the extent of these operations on other continents. A Ukrainian Defense Intelligence source with knowledge of the operations told CNN that several Ukrainian specialists were also stationed in Sudan and that troops from Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso had previously traveled to Mali to receive drone training from Ukrainian soldiers there.

When Iran began striking US allies in the Middle East earlier this year, Ukraine sent teams of military experts to at least five countries in the Middle East. They spent several weeks teaching local forces how to take down the Iranian-made Shahed drones which Russia has been using to terrorize Ukraine for several years. One Ukrainian soldier who was deployed to the United Arab Emirates told CNN they were operating in combined teams with local troops driving alongside them and mirroring their every move.

In exchange for sharing its know-how, Kyiv received an array of security cooperation agreements and promises of ammunition.

In the Sahel, a vast semi-arid region to the south of the Sahara Desert, the situation is more complicated.

Russia has been trying to assert itself as a power player in Africa, especially in the mineral-rich, coup-prone Sahel region. It has tried to fill the security void left by the withdrawal of French and other Western forces in recent years, propping up governments in exchange for cash and lucrative mining rights.

At first, the Kremlin outsourced these operations to the Wagner Group, a private military company owned by entrepreneurial warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin. After Prigozhin’s death following his attempted coup in 2023, Moscow merged what remained of Wagner with its regular military, creating the Africa Corps, which deploys in support of Moscow’s local allies.

‘Serious adaptation’

The Ukrainian group in Mali is embedded with a separatist group that calls itself the Azawad Liberation Front and is composed mostly of northern Tuareg rebels. They are not directly involved in the frontline fighting but provide the rebels with support, training and operational help, two Ukrainians deployed there told CNN.

“I coordinate their operations remotely. The signal from their drone comes to me over the internet, and I immediately tell them via radio what to do and where to fly,” one of the Ukrainian drone operators currently in Mali told CNN.

“They go out on missions, then return to me, and we go over every detail of their actions. I don’t go out to the front lines myself — that was a direct order from my superiors,” he said.

Russia has previously accused Ukraine of participating in massacres against civilians in Mali – an accusation Kyiv has denied. Separately, rights group Human Rights Watch released two reports over the summer accusing Russian troops in Mali of killing civilians, and another report that said that “all parties” directly engaged in the conflict unlawfully attacked civilians during a flare-up in violence in April. The report did not mention Ukraine.

Asked about the allegations last month, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters the Africa Corps “operates strictly within the bounds of legality” and “in response to official requests from the legitimate governments of African states.”

The Ukrainian Defense Intelligence source told CNN the point of the overseas deployments is to put pressure on Russia and undermine the notion that Moscow can be a reliable ally. “We are turning our experience in the field of (drones) into a foreign policy tool,” the source said.

But he said the mission is also beneficial to the Ukrainians because it gives them a chance to test their equipment and skills in a completely different environment – and to show partners their methods work everywhere.

“Dust and heat cause equipment to fail faster. Filters, cooling, electronics protection, batteries… everything works differently (and) requires serious adaptation,” he said, adding that even the way the war is fought is vastly different.

“In Ukraine, it’s high intensity, massive strikes, constant pressure. Here it’s more of a maneuverable war over large territories, ambushes, route control, working in small groups and depending on knowledge of the terrain.”

Differences in discipline and training require adaptation on both sides, he said, adding: “We teach them tactics; they teach us to survive and fight.”

Russia is also using its operations in Africa to expand and adapt its military technology. Just this week, the state-owned weapons exporter, Rosoboronexport, presented new missiles and drones at the El Alamein International Airshow in Egypt, with the agency’s chief telling the Russian state news agency TASS these weapons are “proven” for combat in Africa and the Middle East.

Growing confidence

The Ukrainian contingents are small, but they are a sign of Ukraine’s growing confidence that its drone expertise has elevated its global status.

Héni Nsaibia, West Africa senior analyst at Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), an independent conflict monitor, told CNN that Mali is one of the countries where Russia now plays a crucial role.

“They provide an essential lifeline to the regime,” he said, adding that Africa Corps forces have been “instrumental in preventing a more profound collapse, and possibly even the fall of the regime.”

“But (the Russians) also need this military regime in place in order to be able to stay in Mali,” Nsaibia added.

The first allegations that Ukraine was helping the Tuaregs came in 2024. In July that year, the rebels ambushed and killed dozens of Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers near the town of Tinzaouaten, on the border with Algeria.

Andriy Yusov, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, said at the time that the rebels received “necessary information” from Kyiv to fight the Russians. And while Ukraine later denied any substantial cooperation with the rebels, Yusov’s comment prompted a backlash from the military juntas of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, who lodged an official complaint with the United Nations Security Council, accusing Ukraine of sponsoring terrorists.

CNN asked Defense Intelligence for comment for this article and was referred to earlier comments made by officials.

The drone operator told CNN that Ukrainians also assisted rebels in the takeover of the strategic northern Mali town of Kidal earlier this year. The Tuareg rebels and militants linked to al Qaeda launched simultaneous attacks against the Russian troops, forcing them to withdraw. The Russian Defense Ministry accused Kyiv of playing a role in the attack, saying in a statement that “Ukrainian and European mercenary instructors” trained the rebels before the assault.

Nsaibia said the Kidal takeover marked a key defeat for the Malian regime – and the Russian troops that have been propping it up.

“It was a major setback that they lost Kidal and had to negotiate a safe corridor to be able to withdraw,” he told CNN. However, Nsaibia said that the situation could have been much worse for the Malian regime, had it not been for the assistance of Russia’s Africa Corps.

‘Attacked by the same idiots’

The attack in Kidal highlighted the massive difference drones can make on the battlefield in Mali and elsewhere in the Sahel, where war still tends to be fought in more traditional ways, using infantry troops equipped with rudimentary weapons.

The Ukrainians in Mali told CNN the partnership with the Tuareg is one of convenience, not necessarily conviction.

“Culture and religion are different, but when you are being attacked by the same idiots, ideological differences fade into the background,” the Defense Intelligence source said.

The drone operator told CNN that his personal opinions and feelings are irrelevant.

He described some of the rebels as “radicals” who are prone to spontaneously shoot in the air and act in “disruptive ways.”

“Sometimes it’s emotionally hard to ignore certain things. It just so happens that we’re on the same side of the barricades right now… if these guys go on to successfully beat the Russians, we’ll be more than happy to train them,” he told CNN.

He believes any operation that weakens the Russians can help Ukraine move the needle towards victory at home. “It puts pressure on them. This whole story has both psychological and real results,” he told CNN.

A Russian ‘shadow’ fleet, and an escaped Ukrainian naval drone

Earlier this year, a group of Greek fishermen spotted a mysterious black vessel floating near the country’s western island of Lefkada.

It turned out to be a Ukrainian naval drone carrying explosives. Greece issued a formal diplomatic protest to Ukraine and Kyiv officially apologized for the incident, but it blamed Russia for creating the situation by attacking Ukraine and using a “shadow” fleet of oil tankers. These allow Russia to sell its oil in defiance of international sanctions, helping to finance the war.

The drone had escaped from Ukrainian operators deployed to northwestern Libya, where they have been stationed since the end of 2025, the Ukrainian defense intelligence source told CNN.

Their presence there was first reported by French public broadcaster RFI in the spring, and while never officially confirmed by the Ukrainian government, it is now an open secret. One Ukrainian naval drone operator deployed in Libya told CNN his unit was using the international military base in Misrata as a launchpad to attack Russia’s shadow fleet in exchange for training local forces.

Like the aerial drone operator in Mali, he was recruited earlier this year by Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence straight from his previous post in Ukraine.

Ukraine – a longstanding contributor to UN-peacekeeping missions in northern and central Africa before Russia’s full-scale invasion – has made no secret of its desire to become a different kind of player on the continent.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s former spy chief who is now the head of Zelensky’s presidential office, said in 2023 that Ukraine’s goal was to “keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”

It’s a sentiment shared by all the Ukrainian troops who spoke with CNN.

On Monday, Budanov once again pointed to Ukraine’s growing global footprint, posting a statement on social media celebrating its Defense Intelligence for protecting the country’s interests around the world, from “Russia to Africa, in a suit and in camouflage.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.