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...

[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,

[piasa]

Wrong. It is Russia that has been training and equipping terrorists. They’re the same jerks who had their pet Cubans running Venezuela’s cocaine distribution from Maduro’s office and sinking their teeth into a bunch of strategic mineral reserves in that country too. Cuba by the way is and has been a Russian training ground for Arab and African terrorists thought the cold war — recall all their meddling in Angola.

[BroJoeK]

from the article: "An increasingly desperate Kremlin is also using foreign recruits from a staggering 136 countries to fight its war in Ukraine, a new Amnesty International report published Thursday revealed.
“Recruitment has frequently involved deceptive, coercive and exploitative practices,” the organization said in its report, where it spoke with prisoners of war captured by Ukrainian forces.
The men have been from countries including Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Somalia and South Africa, often foreign nationals from low-income countries or migrants and refugees in Russia.
They were duped into joining Putin’s war by false promises of civilian jobs, high salaries, legal status or citizenship."

EnderWiggin1970: "In other words, Ukraine is training and equipping terrorists just to fight Russians in an irrelevant theatre.
This won't end well."

Naw.
But every dead Russian soldier in Africa is one less to invade Ukraine.
Do the math -- it works in Ukraine's favor in Africa.

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

Ukrainians don't need the agencies to motivate them to kill Russian soldiers, Ukrainians are highly motivated and focused on their own -- Vladimir Putin made certain of that.

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

That "curtain" is not entirely opaque.
The New York Times published at least two reports on this:

1. Title: Deepened Over a Decade, Ukraine's C.I.A. Alliance
   Authors: Adam Entous and Michael Schwirtz
   Date: February 25-26, 2024

   Link:New York Times PDF/front-page version: Deepened Over a Decade, Ukraine's C.I.A. Alliance

   Key revelations reported:

   • A CIA-supported network of roughly a dozen intelligence facilities in Ukraine.
   • CIA financing and support for signals-intelligence and surveillance infrastructure.
   • Training of Ukrainian intelligence officers and special units.
   • A decade-long intelligence partnership beginning after the 2014 Crimea crisis.

   This was based on more than 200 interviews with current and former officials from Ukraine, the U.S., and Europe, according to the reporting.

2. 2025 New York Times investigation

   Title: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine
   Authors: Primarily Adam Entous
   Date: March 30, 2025
   Link: Mirror/PDF reproduction of the NYT article: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine

   Key revelations reported:

   

   • A secret operational partnership centered at the U.S. military headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany.
   • Extensive U.S. involvement in intelligence analysis, targeting support, operational planning, and coordination with Ukrainian commanders.
   • British participation in some of the early wartime coordination arrangements.
   • A much closer level of U.S.-Ukraine military integration than had previously been publicly understood.

So, none of that is a secret.
Whether it means the CIA is "pulling Zelensky's strings" is a different matter.
I don't think Zelensky's, or any other Ukrainians' strings need pulling -- they are perfectly capable of killing as many Russians soldiers as they have bullets for, without anybody telling them when to pull their triggers.

[PGR88]

Seems Ukraine has enough resources to engage in a global war against Russia, even in Africa

They clearly don’t need our money or weapons

[PAR35]

The ‘local rebels’ in Mali are Muslim terrorists.

Ukraine is supporting the spread of militant Islam.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I’ve learned not to waste my time debating war-groupies.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I’ve learned not to waste my time debating war-groupies.

[tlozo]

The ‘local rebels’ in Mali are Muslim terrorists.

Mali is run by a dictator, Assimi Goïta who seized power in 2021 from an interim president Bah Ndaw, in a coup.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assimi_Go%C3%AFta

[tlozo]

The United States suspended security and non-humanitarian assistance to Mali following its military coups (particularly in 2020 and 2021), while condemning the overthrow of civilian transition leaders.

Washington repeatedly joined international bodies like ECOWAS and the African Union to demand a swift return to a democratic, civilian-led government

https://2021-2025.state.gov/on-the-situation-in-mali/

[McGruff]

Ukraine should focus on the war at home. They are getting their butt kicked right now.

[BroJoeK]

E. Pluribus Unum: "I’ve learned not to waste my time debating war-groupies."

And yet... here you are, posting an article about a war in Africa.
Oh, no... that's not "war-groupie", that's just randomly selected anti-Ukraine/anti-American propaganda, right?

Why would anyone suppose your article has anything to do with war, or with international efforts to oppose Tsar Vladimir's global imperial ambitions?

And why would anyone on Free Republic expect E. Pluribus Unum to defend his views when challenged?

US Allies, Partners & Friends (green):
(not 100% accurate)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

You war-groupies hate it when somebody says something negative about the wars you love so much.

You just proved it.

[BroJoeK]

E. Pluribus Unum: "You war-groupies hate it when somebody says something negative about the wars you love so much."

FRiend, you are substituting catcalls for facts & logic.

Epithets like "war-groupies" & "wars you love" are not arguments, they're just throwing cr*p against a wall to see if it sticks.

You didn't say "something negative", you posted something factually untrue and politically toxic -- that's the definition of "propaganda".

I merely corrected your errors.