Ukraine U-turns on claim it has armed rebels in Mali
Ukraine has said it “strongly rejects” accusations that it is involved in the supply of drones to Tuareg militants in Mali, after French media reported that the rebels received “discreet but decisive” support from Ukraine in their campaign against the pro-Russian government in Bamako.
After Malian and Wagner forces suffered a major defeat in an ambush in July, A spokesman for Kiev's HUR military intelligence agency, Andrey Yusov, admitted that his agency had given the rebels “necessary information, and not just information, which enabled a successful military operation.”
The Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), a coalition of predominantly Tuareg militant forces based in northern Mali, has been trained in drone warfare by Kiev’s HUR military intelligence agency, French newspaper Le Monde reported last week.
The Tuaregs used light quadcopter drones to drop explosives on Malian government forces and members of the Russian Wagner private military company in at least three ambushes since July, Le Monde reported, without specifying how many of these “Ukrainian drones” have allegedly been supplied by the HUR.
”Ukraine strongly rejects the accusations that have recently been released by the international media outlets about the alleged involvement of our state in the supply of UAVs to the rebels in Mali,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
“We also reject all accusations against Ukraine regarding the alleged involvement of our state in the entry into the Sahel region of weapons and military equipment supplied to Ukraine,” the statement continued.
Notably, the ministry did not explicitly deny providing drone warfare training to the Tuareg rebels, as Le Monde alleged. Additionally, the statement seemingly acknowledged that arms sent by the West to Ukraine have been diverted to the Sahel region, but not by the Ukrainian government.
Mali severed diplomatic ties with Ukraine in response to Yusov’s admission, and Kiev later disavowed his comments. Speaking to Le Monde, a source close to the HUR said that it was a “diplomatic error” to acknowledge its involvement in the ambush, but that the agency remains committed to hunting down Wagner members “wherever they are.”
In a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York last month, Mali’s foreign minister called on the Security Council to take action against Ukraine, accusing Kiev of “subversive actions that threaten our stability.”
Mali has been embroiled in a jihadist insurgency since 2012, with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State factions accused of partnering with militias like the Tuaregs to kill thousands and forcibly displace over 375,000 people, according to UN estimates.
A decade-long French military operation failed to quell the violence, which has spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. Both of these countries and Mali are now led by military governments after their pro-Western leaders were ousted in a series of coups d’etat since 2020.
The three nations formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) last year and have since turned to Russia for security assistance in combating the insurgency.
