Beyond the Battlefield: How Ukraine is Hunting Russian Forces in African Deserts

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.

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.”

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” 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.

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.

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. 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.

Ukraine 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.”