The conditions are grueling. Temperatures regularly rise above 110 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and then drop sharply at night. Water is scarce and dust and sand get everywhere. But at least they’re working on the surface. This elite group of Ukrainian drone operators has spent years hunting Russians in safe havens in Ukraine. They continue doing the same thing, but in the desert of northern Mali. Some 15 Ukrainian specialists have been deployed to the military junta-led country in Africa’s Sahel region to help local rebel forces fighting Russian troops, part of kyiv’s mission to weaken its enemy wherever it operates. And kyiv has also expanded into other theaters of conflict, leveraging its hard-earned experience in drone warfare to forge new anti-Russian partnerships. By 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 attacking US allies in the Middle East earlier this year, Ukraine sent teams of military experts to at least five Middle Eastern countries. They spent several weeks teaching local forces how to shoot down the Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia has been using to terrorize Ukraine for several years. A Ukrainian soldier 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 knowledge, kyiv received a series of security cooperation agreements and promises of ammunition. In the Sahel, a vast semi-arid region 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 and coup-prone Sahel region. It has sought to fill the security vacuum 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 corporate warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin. After Prigozhin’s death following his attempted coup in 2023, Moscow merged what was left of Wagner with its regular army, creating the Africa Corps, which is deployed in support of Moscow’s local allies. The Ukrainian group in Mali is integrated with a separatist group that calls itself the Azawad Liberation Front and is made up mainly of Tuareg rebels from the north. They are not directly involved in front-line 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 reaches me over the Internet, and I immediately tell them by 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 they come back to me and we go over every detail of their actions. I don’t go out front; it 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, the human rights group Human Rights Watch published two reports over the summer accusing Russian troops in Mali of killing civilians, and another report saying that “all parties” directly involved in the conflict illegally attacked civilians during an outbreak of violence in April. The report does not mention Ukraine. When asked last month about the allegations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that the African Corps “operates strictly within the limits of legality” and “in response to official requests from the legitimate governments of African states.” The Ukrainian Defense Intelligence source told CNN that the goal 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 (drone) field into a foreign policy tool,” the source said. But he said the mission is also beneficial for the Ukrainians because it gives them the opportunity to test their equipment and skills in a completely different environment and to show their partners that their methods work everywhere. “Dust and heat make equipment fail faster. Filters, cooling, electronic protection, batteries… everything works differently (and) requires serious adaptation,” he said, adding that even the way war is fought is very different. “In Ukraine, there is high intensity, massive attacks, constant pressure. Here it is more of a maneuverable war over large territories, ambushes, controlling routes, working in small groups and depending on knowledge of the terrain.” Differences in discipline and training require adaptation on both sides, he said, adding: “We teach them tactics; they teach us how to survive and fight.” Russia is also using its operations in Africa to expand and adapt its military technology. Just this week, state arms exporter Rosoboronexport unveiled new missiles and drones at the El Alamein International Airshow in Egypt, with the agency’s head telling Russian state news agency TASS that these weapons are “proven” for combat in Africa and the Middle East. 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, senior West Africa 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 African Corps forces have been “pivotal in preventing a deeper collapse, and possibly even the fall of the regime.” “But (the Russians) also need this military regime to be able to stay in Mali,” Nsaibia added. The first accusations that Ukraine was helping the Tuaregs came in 2024. In July of that year, rebels ambushed and killed dozens of Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers near the town of Tinzaouaten, on the border with Algeria. Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, said at the time that the rebels received “necessary information” to fight the Russians. And although Ukraine later denied any substantial cooperation with the rebels, Yusov’s comment sparked a backlash from the military junta of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which filed an official complaint with the United Nations Security Council, accusing Ukraine of sponsoring terrorists. CNN requested comment from Defense Intelligence for this story and was referred to previous comments made by officials. The drone operator told CNN that the Ukrainians also helped rebels take the strategic northern Malian city of Kidal earlier this year. Tuareg rebels and al-Qaeda-linked militants launched simultaneous attacks on Russian troops, forcing them to withdraw. The Russian Defense Ministry accused kyiv of playing a role in the attack and said in a statement that “Ukrainian and European mercenary instructors” trained the rebels before the attack. Nsaibia said the seizure of Kidal marked a key defeat for the Malian regime and for the Russian troops who have been propping it up. “It was a big setback that they lost Kidal and had to negotiate a safe corridor to be able to withdraw,” he told CNN. However, Nsaibia said the situation could have been much worse for the Malian regime if it had not been for the help of Russia’s African Corps. The attack in Kidal highlighted the enormous difference that drones can make on the battlefield in Mali and other parts of the Sahel, where war still tends to be fought in more traditional ways, using infantry troops equipped with rudimentary weapons. Ukrainians in Mali told CNN that association with the Tuareg is out of convenience, not necessarily conviction. “Culture and religion are different, but when you are attacked by the same idiots, ideological differences take a backseat,” the Defense Intelligence source said. The drone operator told CNN that his personal opinions and feelings are irrelevant. He described some of the rebels as “radicals” who are prone to spontaneously shooting into the air and acting in “disruptive ways.” “Sometimes it’s emotionally difficult to ignore certain things. It just so happens that we’re on the same side of the barricades right now…if these guys can successfully beat the Russians, we’ll be more than happy to train them,” he told CNN. He believes that any operation that weakens the Russians can help Ukraine move toward victory at home. “This puts pressure on them. This whole story has both psychological and real results,” he told CNN. A ‘shadow’ Russian fleet and an escaped Ukrainian naval drone Earlier this year, a group of Greek fishermen sighted a mysterious black ship floating near the 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 blamed Russia for creating the situation by attacking Ukraine and using a “shadow” fleet of tankers. These allow Russia to sell its oil in defiance of international sanctions, helping to finance the war. The drone had escaped from Ukrainian operators deployed in northwestern Libya, where they have been stationed since late 2025, the Ukrainian defense intelligence source told CNN. Its presence there was first reported by French public broadcaster RFI in the spring, and although it was never officially confirmed by the Ukrainian government, it is now an open secret. A Ukrainian naval drone operator deployed to Libya told CNN that his unit was using the international military base in Misrata as a launching pad to attack Russia’s shadow fleet in exchange for training local forces. Like the drone operator in Mali, he was recruited earlier this year by Ukrainian Defense Intelligence directly from his previous position in Ukraine. Ukraine – a long-time contributor to UN peacekeeping missions in North and Central Africa before Russia’s full-scale invasion – has made no secret of its desire to become a different kind of player on the continent. Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s former spy chief and now head of Zelensky’s presidential office, said in 2023 that Ukraine’s goal was to “continue killing Russians anywhere in this world until Ukraine’s complete victory.” It’s a sentiment shared by all the Ukrainian troops who spoke to CNN. On Monday, Budanov again noted Ukraine’s growing global footprint, posting a statement on social media celebrating its Defense Intelligence protecting the country’s interests around the world, from “Russia to Africa, in suit and camouflage.”
