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Ukraine has expanded its military campaign against Russia beyond its own borders, deploying drone specialists to parts of Africa and providing training and operational support to local forces opposed to Russian-backed governments and fighters, CNN reported on September 12.
The operations include a contingent of about 15 Ukrainian specialists in northern Mali, where they are working with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a predominantly Tuareg separatist group fighting Mali’s military government and its Russian allies.
According to Ukrainian personnel interviewed by CNN, the specialists provide drone training and help coordinate operations remotely rather than routinely operating alongside rebel forces on the front lines.
One Ukrainian drone operator told CNN that he receives a live feed from aircraft operated by local fighters and directs their missions by radio, later reviewing their operations with them.
CNN reported that the Ukrainian presence extends beyond Mali. A Ukrainian Defense Intelligence source told the network that several Ukrainian specialists are also in Sudan, while forces from Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso have previously traveled to Mali for drone training by Ukrainian personnel.
The outreach reflects a broader effort by Kyiv to turn its experience with unmanned warfare into military partnerships. Ukrainian specialists have also traveled to countries in the Middle East to teach local forces how to counter Iranian-made Shahed drones, the same general family of weapons that Russia has used extensively against Ukraine.
Ukraine received security cooperation agreements and promises of ammunition in return for some of that assistance, according to the report.
The Ukrainian activities in Mali are particularly sensitive because Kyiv is dealing with actors that, rather than operating as an extension of Ukraine’s regular battlefield forces, are fighting the Russian-backed Malian government.
The CNN report also details a separate Ukrainian operation in Libya involving naval drones. According to a Ukrainian Defense Intelligence source, Ukrainian personnel have been operating in northwestern Libya since late last year and using a military facility in Misrata while training local forces and targeting Russian-linked maritime activity.
The operation became publicly visible earlier this year when a Ukrainian-made naval drone carrying explosives washed ashore on the Greek island of Lefkada. Greek authorities later identified it as Ukrainian and described the incident as a serious security concern. The vessel appeared to have drifted after losing contact with its operators.
The network said the drone had escaped from Ukrainian operators working in Libya and had been intended for operations against Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.
The Ukrainian strategy in Africa also reflects how the war has created an increasingly international market for drone expertise.
CNN’s report noted that the scale of the Ukrainian deployments remains small compared with Russia’s military presence in the continent.
There is also a wider security concern arising from the spread of this expertise across Africa. Drone technology is relatively inexpensive, increasingly sophisticated and readily adaptable, allowing battlefield knowledge to move quickly between armed groups operating in the same conflict zones.
Mali illustrates the risk particularly clearly. The FLA, which CNN reports is receiving Ukrainian assistance, has developed a battlefield relationship with Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, an al-Qaida affiliate. The two groups have fought in coordination against Malian government forces and Russian-backed fighters, raising the possibility that drone expertise introduced through one group could spread through its battlefield networks to another.
There is no public evidence that Ukraine has directly supplied JNIM, but the potential for advanced drone know-how to move beyond its original recipients highlights a broader proliferation problem, particularly as African militant groups have already begun using commercial drones for reconnaissance and attacks.
What begins as a strategy to counter Russian influence could therefore contribute to the emergence of more capable drone-warfare networks among non-state armed groups, including terrorist groups linked to al-Qaida and ISIS. Kyiv is certainly ignoring the risk.
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