Summary Russian paramilitary Wagner group operates in Mali, suffers aircraft losses in battles. Losses include Su-25 Frogfoots, L-39 Albatros jet trainers, Il-76 transport, and helicopters. Russia aims to reconstitute Mali Air Force for counter-insurgency, putting strain on Russian combat aircraft stocks.
While the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to rage, that is not the only war Russia is fighting. Russia is fighting a number of somewhat covert or limited wars in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Sahara. One of the most notable is in the African Sahara nation of Mali , where Russia is fighting through its paramilitary group Wagner.
The war in Mali requires a very different type of air force. In Mali, light ground attack aircraft are better suited and not large fighter bombers like the Su-34s Russia uses in Ukraine . Russia's unofficial army Officially, Wagner or PMC Wagner is a private military group open for hire and contracts with Mali to provide security services in the nation (as well as other countries worldwide ).
However, it is widely seen as another Russian paramilitary group controlled by the Kremlin. As Wagner is (or was) not Russia's official military, it provides Russia with plausible deniability (like when US forces annihilated a group of them in Syria in 2018 at the Battle of Khasham ). Wagner was heavily used to fighting Ukraine at the Battle of Bakhmut in 2023.
However, the strain of war and internal divisions led them to briefly rebel a.