Rebels in Mali Display Ukrainian Flag After Wagner Defeat

Kyiv Post obtained an exclusive photo Monday, July 29 from sources in Ukraine’s defense and security sector showing Tuareg rebels posing with a Ukrainian flag after having just dealt a major defeat to Russian state-funded Wagner mercenaries in Mali.

Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), stated, during a national telethon on Monday, July 29, that “the rebels received necessary information, which enabled a successful military operation against Russian war criminals,” adding, “We won’t discuss the details at the moment, but there will be more to come.”

This photo seems to indicate the Tuaregs’ support for Ukraine – which has been pursuing Wagner mercenaries' across the African continent.

Wagner mercenaries have helped the Russian government extract natural resources in Africa, including, according to The Blood Gold Report, an estimated $2.5 billion worth of gold in the past two years, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin has used to help fund his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ongoing since February 2022.

Tuareg rebels from the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) earlier shared photos and videos of a destroyed Wagner column.

The battles with Wagner occurred in the town of Tinzaouatene, near Mali’s border with Algeria on Thursday and Friday, July 25 and 26. At least 20 Wagner militants were killed, and others captured, they reported.

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In June, Kyiv Post obtained exclusive video allegedly showing Ukrainian special forces working with Syrian rebels to decimate Russian mercenaries in Syria.

In February, it got exclusive video allegedly showing Ukrainian special forces interrogating captured Wagner mercenaries in the Republic of Sudan. In the video, the prisoners admit that their task had been to go to Sudan and overthrow the government there.

In January, Kyiv Post published an exclusive video allegedly showing Ukrainian drones destroying “Russian mercenaries” and their “local terrorist partners” in Sudan.

And last November, it got an exclusive video allegedly showing Ukrainian special forces performing “cleaning up” operations of Wagner fighters in Sudan.

Russia has encountered a “Ukrainian trace” in many of its defeats in Africa.

Russia's state-funded news agency, Russia Today (RT), said Ukraine's Defense Intelligence (HUR) has been “training local Tuareg separatist militants, as well as covertly bringing at least two groups of them to Ukraine to teach them to use FPV drones,” citing Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel GREY ZONE.

Kyiv Post’s source said: “Russian propagandists continue talking about the involvement of the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, in everything that happens to their terrorists in Africa.”

HUR was likely very active over the weekend. According to a Kyiv Post source, early Saturday morning HUR also conducted dronestrikes on three Russian air bases, plus an oil refinery.

Also on Saturday, a Kyiv Post source reported that HUR hackers wiped out ATM services in many parts of Russia, part of a group of mass-scale cyber-attacks its lately been carrying out, primarily aimed at Russian financial institutions.

Here, for more on the meaning of Wagner's defeat in Mali.