Among the Wagner mercenaries presumed dead after a deadly clash with Tuareg rebels during a desert sandstorm in Mali in July were Russian war veterans who had previously served in Ukraine, Libya, and Syria, according to interviews with their families and a review of social media.
The loss of these experienced fighters highlights the risks Russian mercenaries face while working for military juntas in the Sahel region, including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, where separatist groups and powerful offshoots of Islamic State and Al Qaeda operate.
The defeat in Mali has raised doubts about whether Moscow, which has admitted to funding Wagner and integrating many of its fighters into a defense ministry force, will perform better than the Western and U.N. troops recently expelled by these juntas, according to six officials and experts familiar with the region.
Using public information, online posts from relatives and fighters, interviews with seven family members, and facial recognition software to analyze battlefield footage verified by Reuters, the news agency identified 23 missing fighters and two others captured by Tuareg forces after the ambush near Tinzaouaten, a town near the Algerian border.
Several of these men had survived the brutal siege of Bakhmut in Ukraine, which Wagner’s late founder Yevgeny Prigozhin had described as a “meat grinder.” Others had previously served in Libya, Syria, and other conflict zones. Some were former Russian soldiers, including at least one who had retired after a full military career.
Grisly footage of the dead fighters has circulated online, and some relatives told Reuters their loved ones’ bodies had been abandoned in the desert. Reuters was unable to confirm how many of the identified men were dead.
Margarita Goncharova, the mother of Vadim Evsiukov, 31, said her son was first recruited while serving a drug-related prison sentence in 2022. He quickly rose through the ranks during the Ukraine conflict to command a platoon of 500 men. After returning home, he worked as a tailor but struggled with survivor’s guilt and secretly left for Africa in April to rejoin his former commander.
“He wanted to fly to Africa many times. I discouraged him as much as I could,” Goncharova told Reuters. “I told him, ‘Fate has given you a once-in-a-million chance. You can start your life again; you’ve won such a crazy lottery.'”
The Russian Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Wagner did not respond to requests for comment on the story.
After Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death in August last year, Wagner personnel were invited to join a newly established group called the Africa Corps, operating under the Russian defense ministry. According to the Africa Corps’ Telegram channel, the group aims to “fight for justice and the interests of Russia.”
The channel also noted that about half of its members are former Wagner employees who are allowed to retain their Wagner insignia. Wagner’s social media presence remains active, despite these changes.
The Russian government has yet to comment on the battle near Tinzaouaten. Meanwhile, Mali’s military-led government stated that the defeat has not affected its objectives. “The Malian Armed Forces are committed to restoring the authority of the state throughout the country,” said army spokesman Colonel Major Souleymane Dembele in an interview with Reuters.
Although Wagner has acknowledged significant losses in the ambush, no official figures have been provided. The Malian army, which fought alongside the Russian forces, also did not disclose a death toll. Tuareg rebels, who seek independence, claimed they killed 84 Russians and 47 Malian soldiers during the ambush. However, Reuters could not independently verify the total number of casualties.
One of the videos, out of more than 20 shared with Reuters by a Tuareg rebel spokesman, showed at least 47 bodies, mostly white men in military uniforms, lying in the desert. Reuters was able to verify the date and location of the video.
Mikhail Zvinchuk, a well-known blogger with ties to the Russian defense ministry, commented on the social media platform RuTube in August, suggesting that Wagner fighters, who had come from Ukraine, had underestimated both the Tuareg rebels and the Al Qaeda fighters in the region.
Wagner-linked Telegram accounts confirmed two of the dead as Nikita Fedyakin, the administrator of “The Grey Zone,” a popular Wagner-focused Telegram channel with over half a million subscribers, and Sergei Shevchenko, described as the unit commander. Reuters was unable to verify Shevchenko’s identity.
Through public postings by relatives in an official Wagner Telegram chat group, Reuters identified 23 Wagner operatives missing in Mali. The names were cross-checked using social media accounts, publicly available data, and facial recognition software. On August 6, all the relatives reported receiving phone calls from Wagner recruiters informing them that their loved ones were missing in action.
Lyubov Bazhenova, one of the relatives, told Reuters she had no idea her son, Vladimir Akimov, 25, who had briefly served as a conscript in Russia’s elite airborne forces, had signed up to fight in Africa.
Lyudmila Kuzekmaeva expressed frustration with Wagner for providing no further information about her husband Alexei Kuzekmaev’s fate or the location of his body. Despite sending letters to the prosecutor’s office, the defense ministry, and the foreign ministry, she said none had responded. Facial recognition software was used to identify two more men captured by Tuareg fighters, based on photos and videos from the ambush site shared by Tuareg sources.
The Tuareg rebels posted images and videos of the two captives on social media. Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the rebel alliance, confirmed in late August that the men were still in rebel custody.
Kuzekmaev, 47, had no prior military experience, according to his wife. “Neither my tears, nor my pleas, nor my hysteria helped. A month before he left, he simply told me, ‘I bought a ticket and I’m leaving.'”
One of the most experienced men was Alexander Lazarev, 48, a Russian army veteran who had fought in the wars against Chechen separatists in the 1990s and 2000s, according to posts made by his wife in a Wagner-related channel. She declined to comment. Lazarev appeared in many photographs on VKontakte, a Russian social media platform, wearing military uniforms linked to various army subdivisions.
Wagner’s presence in Africa began in 2017, when it became the covert face of Russian operations in Sudan. Over time, its activities expanded, ranging from protecting African coup leaders to gold mining and fighting jihadists. Wagner also operates in the Central African Republic and arrived in Mali in late 2021.
The group’s rise and fall was dramatic. In May 2023, Wagner secured Russia’s first significant battlefield victory in Ukraine in nearly a year by capturing Bakhmut. However, after Prigozhin openly criticized Russian military leaders and attempted a rebellion just weeks later, he died in a plane crash in August. The Kremlin has dismissed U.S. claims that President Putin was behind Prigozhin’s death as an “absolute lie.”
Since 2020, military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have overthrown democratic governments, fueled by public discontent with corruption and years of unsuccessful Western interventions against insurgencies that have killed thousands and displaced millions. These juntas expelled French and U.S. troops, as well as U.N. peacekeepers, turning to Wagner for support.
Eric Whitaker, the top U.S. envoy to Burkina Faso until his retirement in June, who previously served in Niger, Mali, and Chad, noted that the Putin administration has gained full control over the Wagner brand following Prigozhin’s death. “Africa Corps earns the Russian government hard-currency payments from host governments for its services, and also secures significant revenue from gold derived from its operations in the Sahel,” he explained.
Russian mercenary activity surged in Mali after the formation of Africa Corps, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a U.S.-based crisis-monitoring organization. Data from media reports and social media documentation showed an 81% rise in violent incidents linked to Russian mercenaries and a 65% increase in reported civilian fatalities in the past year, compared to the year before Prigozhin’s death.
While Wagner does not release recruitment figures, Jędrzej Czerep, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, estimated that around 6,000 Russian mercenaries are stationed in Africa. Three diplomatic sources indicated that 1,500-2,000 of them are in Mali. “When Africa Corps began promoting and recruiting, they were inundated with applications,” said Czerep, adding, “Being sent to one of the African missions was seen as far safer than Ukraine.”
Tuareg spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane mentioned that the rebel alliance was preparing for further clashes. According to Tibor Nagy, the top U.S. envoy to Africa in 2019, additional losses could potentially force Russia out, citing Wagner’s rapid withdrawal from northern Mozambique after about a dozen of its fighters were killed by an Islamic State affiliate. “They left very quickly,” said Nagy.
Wagner has not commented publicly on its plans in Mali.
