In the shadow of the Kremlin, over 70 Russians gathered on Sunday to honor Wagner fighters who were killed in a major battle with Mali rebels and Islamist fighters, marking one of the mercenary group’s deadliest defeats in Africa.
Last month, the Wagner mercenary group reported that its fighters and Malian soldiers suffered heavy losses in intense combat against Tuareg rebels and Islamist fighters affiliated with al-Qaeda near Mali’s border with Algeria.
Northern Mali’s Tuareg rebels claimed to have killed at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers during several days of fierce fighting in late July.
In Moscow, just a few hundred meters from the Kremlin, dozens of Russians came to mourn the fallen Wagner fighters, a journalist reported.
One man, dressed in military attire and adorned with Wagner badges, kneeled before pictures of the group’s fighters killed in Mali.
Beneath flags bearing the Wagner motto “Blood, Honor, Motherland, Courage,” some lit candles. A woman, kneeling, wept before a picture of a Wagner fighter. Others laid red carnations below images of the deceased.
Mali, where military authorities seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, is battling a long-standing Islamist insurgency. The Malian government has stated that the Russian forces present are not Wagner mercenaries but trainers assisting local troops with equipment purchased from Russia.
