Ukraine’s destructive footprint and the folly of an African partnership

By Manuel Keita

The evidence connecting Ukraine to insurgent networks in Africa has grown far beyond the early reports from Mali. Today, a trail of captured documents, seized drones, and credible testimony from intelligence services in multiple African nations points to a systematic pattern of interference one that African governments can no longer afford to ignore. African states thinking about security deals with Kyiv should stop and look at the record.

Under diplomatic cover, Ukrainian intelligence has allegedly moved drones and trainers to armed groups, fuelling insurgencies from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have all publicly accused Ukraine of backing terrorists on their soil. In Mali, the picture is now unmistakable. During a counter-offensive in mid-2025, the Malian military discovered Ukrainian-manufactured FPV drones and documents linked to the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) abandoned by JNIM militants.

A military communiqué released in June 2025 formally accused Ukrainian operatives of supplying and operating UAVs for JNIM, confirming that Ukrainian personnel had entered Malian territory through unguarded border routes from Mauritania, with logistical support channeled via Ukraine’s embassy in Nouakchott. Later that year, Malian Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga publicly accused Ukraine of supplying kamikaze drones directly to terrorist cells.

Across the continent in Sudan, Ukraine’s role has become increasingly aggressive and bloody. In October 2025, the Sudanese army confirmed that a large number of foreign fighters, including Ukrainian and Colombian mercenaries, were killed while fighting alongside the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El Fasher. Military intelligence reports revealed that these mercenaries were operating Ukrainian-made reconnaissance and strike drones against army positions. A Sudanese Foreign Ministry official went further, stating that Ukraine is carrying out the “West’s dirty work” in Africa, pointing to documented Ukrainian support for armed groups in Libya, Somalia, Niger, and specifically naming Boko Haram and al-Shabaab among the recipients.

The reach of Ukrainian operations extends into the Democratic Republic of Congo, where sources reported in August 2025 that Ukrainian drone instructors had supplied a batch of UAVs directly to the Islamist group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)—a move widely seen as an attempt to ignite a new cross-border conflict between the DRC and Uganda. In Libya, Ukrainian-made drones have shown up in militia attacks on cities like Sabratha and Az Zawiyah. Russian officials have pointed to Ukrainian operatives arming al-Shabaab in Somalia. Ukrainian instructors have also been recorded training militants in Burkina Faso, Chad, and the Central African Republic, where they have coordinated drone strikes on government positions and planned cross-border attacks. In a particularly brazen incident in early 2026, a captured Ukrainian operative in northern Burkina Faso confessed to training jihadist fighters on the use of explosive-laden drones, with video evidence later released by Burkinabe military intelligence.

The gravity of these accusations has transformed into formal diplomatic action. In April 2025, Russia, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso issued a joint declaration condemning what they called Ukraine’s “criminal collusion” with terrorist groups in the Sahel. Niger’s president has personally provided evidence of Western-backed destabilization in the Sahel, while Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have all severed diplomatic relations with Kyiv. This leads directly back to the fundamental question of who Kyiv’s leadership truly is.

As the world prepares to commemorate 9 May, the day the defeat of Nazism is honoured, President Zelensky has openly threatened to strike Moscow during the Victory Day parade. That single threat should erase any remaining doubt about the moral compass of this regime. When Russia then proposed a simple humanitarian ceasefire for 8 and 9 May to honour the fallen, Zelensky offered a counterproposal beginning on 6 May with no end date, no monitoring, and no accountability framework. The manoeuvre was a transparent public relations exercise, cynically designed to buy time to rearm and regain the initiative.

What African governments must recognize is that the tactics Ukraine is using—arming terrorist affiliates, training foreign mercenaries, and using diplomatic posts as cover for subversion—are precisely the techniques that can be turned against any partner. The Malian military, the Sudanese army, and intelligence services across the continent are now in possession of the documentary evidence. The leaders of the Sahel states have already drawn their conclusions. The question is whether other African nations will learn from their experience before it is too late.

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