Dozens of Wagner fighters killed in Mali massacre after being ambushed by armed rebels in humiliating blow for Putin
DOZENS of Russian mercenary fighters from Wagner group have been killed in a massacre in yet another humiliating defeat for Putin.
A convoy with the Russian private army was ambushed by separatist rebels in African state Mali.
Graphic footage depicts the horror scenes of the carnage.
Amateur videos posted on social media showed the corpses of multiple white men and Mali troops strewn over the ground next to wrecked cars.
Russian mercenaries were killed in a surprise attack by Tuareg separatists on the outskirts of Tinzawaten village.
A Wagner Mi-24 helicopter was also downed during the ambush, Russian accounts say.
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Russian war propagandist Anastasia Kashevarova said: "It's really true, there are a lot of our men from Wagner, killed and captured in Mali.
"We were ambushed."
At least 20 soldiers reportedly died while others were wounded and taken as prisoners.
However, some reports claimed that the death toll is at 50.
Mali troops were also massacred in the two-day bloodbath as Wagner forces fight on the side of Mali government.
A statement released by the Malian army on Friday night stated that a rebel onslaught had left two soldiers dead and ten wounded.
The Tuareg fighters have also disabled two pickup trucks and two armoured vehicles.
The army reported that its forces had damaged multiple vehicles and killed about twenty rebels.
Nikita Fedyanin, a 31-year-old author of the Telegram channel Grey Zone and a well-known Wagner propagandist, was reportedly among the dead.
Kashevarova added: "He died with dignity - with weapons in his hands, as befits a warrior."
What is the Wagner Group?
THE Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian paramilitary organisation that was founded in 2014.
It was run by Putin's former close ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Russia calls the Wagner Group a "private military company," though it has been labelled as a network of mercenaries by others.
It is believed that, as of December 2022, the Wagner Group had an estimated 50,000 personnel inside Ukraine.
This number was made up of around 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts from Russian prisons, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said via .
Prigozhin and his troops had been fighting in Putin's war in Ukraine - but the Wagner boss had become a vocal critic of Russia's military leadership.
In the early hours of June 24, 2023, he announced he had taken control of the Russian army HQ in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, vowing to take the fight to Moscow.
The oligarch was killed not long after in a private jet crash.
Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the pro-independence CSP-DPA coalition, said the rebels "routed the entire column of Malian army and Russian mercenaries".
He said: ";The enemy suffered huge losses in terms of lives and equipment, including dozens of dead and wounded.
"Malian soldiers and mercenaries from Wagner surrendered to the Tuareg fighters."
Some unconfirmed accounts stated that ransoms were paid for the return of wounded Wagner troops.
The massacre comes less than a week after the army announced the recapture of a strategic village near the Algerian border from the Tuareg fighters.
The Tuareg people are an ethnic group, inhabiting the Sahara region, including parts of northern Mali.
The group claims to be marginalised by the Malian government.
Putin took over control of the Wagner force after group's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin's death in a plane crash.
Mad Vlad integrated some of its soldiers into the Russian army to fights in his war in Ukraine.
Others are deployed to Africa to supposedly support Russian objectives in the region.
Professor Salvador Sánchez Tapi, a conflict analysis expert at the University of Navarra, previously told The Sun: “Wagner’s presence in Mali serves not only the mercenary army’s corporate interests, but also Russia’s geopolitical ones.
“And it is certainly dangerous.”
GHOST ARMY
The role of the murky mercenary army in half a dozen countries across the continent is often difficult to track.
They usually wear no identifiable uniforms, their vehicles are unmarked and their faces masked.
An arm’s length from the Kremlin - Wagner provides them with a level of deniability and unpredictability that is essential to their mission.
Mali's government has denied the presence of Wagner troops, stating only that they have a contract with Russia to provide “instructors”.
However, the Russian Foreign Ministry, its milbloggers, Western governments and human rights groups have repeatedly stated otherwise.
And in September last year, Wagner made a fiery display of their presence when one of their cargo planes careered off a runway and exploded into a ball of flames, reportedly killing dozens of its fighters.
Investigators have accused the armed thugs of turning Mali into a playground for manipulation - deepening violence, corruption and conflict and earning huge profits for Moscow.
It appears to be a clear business model.
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The more instability and fighting they stir up in these powder keg countries, the more Wagner gets paid to crush it and prop up unlawful, corrupt regimes.
As Vladimir Putin reaps the blood-soaked rewards, the true cost has been paid by ordinary Malians.