After the Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group suffered its recent and heaviest African defeat when dozens of Russians were killed in an ambush in July, Ukraine’s military intelligence service was quick to claim some credit.
That boast now looks closer to a symbolic defeat for Kyiv after the juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger wrote to the United Nations Security Council demanding it denounce Ukraine’s alleged support of rebel groups in the Sahel region of west Africa where Wagner is deployed.
