Ukraine is fighting Russian-propped military dictatorships and warlords in Africa as part of global proxy war

New York Post ^ | Published Sep. 12, 2026, 4:58 p.m. ET | Gabrielle Fahmy

[E. Pluribus Unum]

An elite group of Ukrainian drone operators is hunting Russians from desert dugouts across Africa, as Kyiv wages a proxy war to bleed strongman Vladimir Putin’s global army.

Moscow has deployed about 5,000 troops across Mali, Sudan and Libya to back coup-installed military dictatorships and warlords since 2020 — as Putin has tried to fill the void left by Western forces’ withdrawal and assert himself as a power player — often in exchange for lucrative mining rights.

And Ukraine has worked alongside local rebels to fight off those same Russians forces in an effort to forge new alliances against Moscow.

“I coordinate their operations remotely,” one of the Ukrainian drone operators in Mali told CNN of their efforts to help a local separatist group.

“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.”

Hunting Russians with drone warfare is something Ukrainian forces spent years crafting in the motherland once Putin launched his invasion in 2022 — and the proxy war is part of Kyiv’s strategy to move the needle at home by collapsing its enemy elsewhere.

Fifteen Ukrainian drone operators are embedded with the Azawad Liberation Front rebel group in Mali, fighting back more than 2,000 Russian troops in the desert propping up the military junta of Gen. Assimi Goïta, who seized power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021 — and has since ruled without elections.

“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.

Ukraine has also trained troops from Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso, who traveled to Mali to learn from the...

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TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: africa; drones; libya; mali; metals; minerals; mining; putinswar; russoukrainianwar; sudan; uranium

[EnderWiggin1970]

In other words, Ukraine is training and equipping terrorists just to fight Russians in an irrelevant theatre. This won't end well.

Massive Attack - A Winter Warning & Arming African 'Rebels' Will Backfire

[Nextrush]

Ukrainian drone operators embedded with the “Azawad Liberation Front” are they CIA, MI6, Mossad or all of the above.

I just can’t stop laughing at that name.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In other words, Ukraine is training and equipping terrorists just to fight Russians in an irrelevant theatre. This won't end well.

The keyword is "proxy."

Just as in Ukraine, the USA/UK/NATO are the men behind the curtain to whom we are to pay no attention.

[lonestar67]

Excellent.

[alexander_busek]

Ukrainians fighting Russians and/or Putin-backed dictatorships?

More power to them!

Regards,