From Mali’s Desert to Misrata: Kyiv Expands Its Drone Campaign Against Moscow and Turns Battlefield Expertise into a Foreign Policy Tool
LIBYA – A report by the US network CNN said Ukraine has widened its operations against Russia beyond Europe, deploying small teams of drone specialists in African and Middle Eastern countries in a bid to pressure Moscow and weaken its presence and partnerships wherever it operates.
The report, followed by Al-Marsad, said Ukrainian soldiers and officers are involved in operations in Mali and Libya. A source in Ukrainian defence intelligence familiar with the missions said Ukrainian specialists are also based in Sudan, and that troops from Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso had previously gone to Mali for drone training by Ukrainian soldiers there.
From Ukraine’s Trenches to Mali’s Desert
CNN described harsh conditions for an elite group of Ukrainian drone operators in northern Mali, with daytime temperatures above 110°F (about 43°C), sharp night-time drops, scarce water and dust and sand everywhere. Even so, it said the team is at least working above ground after years hunting Russians from dugouts in Ukraine — pursuing the same mission now in the desert of northern Mali.
About 15 Ukrainian specialists were deployed in the Sahel state under junta rule to help local rebel forces fighting Russian troops, as part of Kyiv’s effort to weaken its adversary wherever it is found. Ukraine has also moved into other conflict theatres, using hard-won drone-war experience to build new anti-Russia partnerships. CNN said it spoke to Ukrainian soldiers and officers who took part in operations in Mali and Libya, and that their accounts reveal for the first time how far these missions have spread across continents.
Training in Five Middle Eastern Countries
According to the report, when Iran earlier this year began striking US allies in the Middle East, Ukraine sent military experts to at least five countries in the region, spending several weeks training local forces to shoot down Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia has long used against Ukraine.
A Ukrainian soldier deployed in the United Arab Emirates told the network that the experts worked in joint teams with local forces, who drove vehicles beside them and mirrored every move. In return for sharing its expertise, Kyiv secured security cooperation deals and promises of ammunition, the report said, though the situation in the Sahel — the semi-arid belt south of the Sahara — appears more complex.
Moscow Fills the Gap Left by Western Withdrawal
The report said Russia is seeking to entrench itself as an influential player in Africa, especially in the mineral-rich, coup-prone Sahel, exploiting the security vacuum left by the withdrawal of French and other Western forces in recent years by backing governments in exchange for money and lucrative mining rights.
It said the Kremlin initially assigned these operations to the Wagner private military group owned by businessman and warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, before folding what remained of the group into its regular forces after Prigozhin’s death following his 2023 mutiny attempt, and creating the “Africa Corps” deployed to support local allies.
Supporting Rebels from Behind the Front Lines
Two Ukrainians deployed in Mali who spoke to CNN said the Ukrainian group works alongside a separatist organisation calling itself the Azawad Liberation Front, made up largely of Tuareg rebels in the north, without joining front-line fighting directly — providing support, training and operational assistance.
One Ukrainian drone operator still in Mali said: “I coordinate their operations remotely; their drone feed reaches me online, and I tell them immediately by radio what to do and which way to fly.” He added that they go out on missions and return so every move can be reviewed, and that he does not go to the front himself — “a direct order from my superiors.”
Russia has previously accused Ukraine of involvement in massacres of civilians in Mali, a charge Kyiv denied. Separately, Human Rights Watch issued two reports over the summer accusing Russian forces in Mali of killing civilians, and another saying “all parties” directly involved in the conflict illegally attacked civilians during an April wave of violence, without naming Ukraine. Asked about the accusations last month, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that the Africa Corps operates strictly within the law and in response to official requests from legitimate African governments.
Drone Expertise Turned into a Foreign Policy Tool
The Ukrainian defence intelligence source said the aim of deployments abroad is to pressure Russia and undermine the idea that Moscow can be a reliable ally, adding: “We are turning our drone expertise into a foreign policy tool.” The missions also let Ukrainians test equipment and skills in a very different environment and prove their methods work everywhere.
Dust and heat make gear fail faster — filters, cooling, electronics protection and batteries all behave differently and need serious adaptation — while the style of war differs sharply from Ukraine’s high-intensity fighting: here it relies more on manoeuvre over vast spaces, ambushes, control of roads, small groups and terrain knowledge. “We teach them tactics; they teach us how to survive and fight,” the source said.
Russia Tests Its Weapons in Africa
The report said Russia is also using its African operations to develop and adapt military technology. State arms exporter Rosoboronexport this week displayed new missiles and drones at Egypt’s El Alamein International Air Show. Its head told Russia’s TASS agency the weapons were “combat-proven” for Africa and the Middle East.
Growing Ukrainian Confidence and a Decisive Russian Role
CNN said the small size of Ukrainian units does not diminish what they say about Kyiv’s growing confidence that its drone expertise has raised its global standing. Héni Nsaibia, senior West Africa analyst at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), said Mali is one of the countries where Russia now plays a decisive role, providing “a vital lifeline” to the regime and arguing Africa Corps forces had been “decisive in preventing a deeper collapse, and perhaps even the fall of the regime” — while noting the Russians also need that military government to survive so they can stay in Mali.
The first claims of Ukrainian help for the Tuareg appeared in 2024 after rebels in July that year ambushed near Tinzaouaten on the Algerian border, killing dozens of Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers. Ukrainian defence intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said at the time that the rebels had received “the necessary information” to fight the Russians. Although Ukraine later denied substantial cooperation with the rebels, Yusov’s remarks drew an angry response from the military authorities in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which filed a formal complaint to the UN Security Council accusing Kyiv of sponsoring terrorists. CNN said it sought comment from Ukrainian defence intelligence but was referred to earlier official statements.
A Ukrainian Role in Seizing Kidal
The drone operator told CNN that Ukrainians also helped rebels earlier this year seize the strategic northern Malian city of Kidal after Tuareg rebels and al-Qaeda-linked fighters launched simultaneous attacks that forced Russian forces to withdraw. Russia’s defence ministry accused Kyiv of a role, saying in a statement that “Ukrainian and European mercenary instructors” had trained the rebels before the operation. Nsaibia called losing Kidal a major setback for the Malian regime and the Russian forces supporting it, while arguing things could have been far worse for Bamako without Russian Africa Corps help.
An Alliance of Convenience, Not Conviction
The Kidal attack showed how much difference drones can make on Malian and other Sahel battlefields still often fought with conventional infantry and basic weapons, the report said. Ukrainians in Mali described their partnership with the Tuareg as an alliance of interest rather than conviction. “Culture and religion are different, but when the same fools attack you, ideological differences fall away,” the intelligence source said.
The drone operator said his personal feelings did not matter, calling some rebels “extremists” prone to firing randomly into the air and acting “chaotically,” adding: “It can be emotionally hard sometimes to ignore certain things. We happen to stand on the same side of the barricades now. If these people succeed in defeating the Russians, we will be very happy to train them.” Any operation that weakens the Russians, he said, may help Ukraine closer to victory at home: “It puts pressure on them, and this whole story delivers both psychological and real results.”
An Explosive Ukrainian Boat Escapes from Libya to Greece
Turning to Libya, the report said a group of Greek fishermen earlier this year spotted a mysterious black boat floating near Lefkada in western Greece — a Ukrainian explosive-laden drone boat. Greece lodged a formal diplomatic protest with Ukraine; Kyiv apologised officially but blamed Russia for creating the conditions by attacking Ukraine and using a “shadow fleet” of oil tankers to sell oil in breach of international sanctions and help fund the war.
A Ukrainian defence intelligence source told CNN the boat escaped from Ukrainian operators deployed in north-western Libya, where they have been based since the end of 2025.
Misrata as a Platform Against the Shadow Fleet
Their presence there was first reported by Radio France Internationale in the spring and, though not officially confirmed by the Ukrainian government, has become an open secret, the report said.
A Ukrainian naval drone operator deployed in Libya told CNN his unit uses an international military base in Misrata as a launch platform to attack Russia’s shadow fleet, in return for training local forces. Ukrainian defence intelligence recruited him earlier this year directly from his previous post in Ukraine, as with the aerial drone operator in Mali.
Ukraine, once a long-standing contributor to UN peacekeeping in North and Central Africa before Russia’s full-scale invasion, has not hidden its wish to become a different kind of player on the continent. Kyrylo Budanov, the former Ukrainian intelligence chief who now heads President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, said in 2023 that Ukraine’s goal was to “keep killing Russians anywhere on Earth until Ukraine’s complete victory” — a view CNN said all the Ukrainian soldiers it spoke to share. On Monday Budanov again pointed to Ukraine’s widening global footprint, posting praise for defence intelligence for protecting the country’s interests “from Russia to Africa, in a suit and in field uniform.”
