In Julyxgbet online casino, dozens of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group found themselves facing a desperate situation in a remote desert in the West African country of Mali.

In July, dozens of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group found themselves facing a desperate situation in a remote desert in the West African country of Mali.

Armed separatists had surrounded them and were closing in.

Armed separatists had surrounded them and were closing in.

Their vehicles, the only means of escape, were being destroyed.

Their vehicles, the only means of escape, were being destroyed.

By the time the battle was over, nearly all of the mercenaries were dead.

By the time the battle was over, nearly all of the mercenaries were dead.

Supported by

visual investigations

For years, Russia has promoted the Wagner mercenary group to authoritarian leaders in Africa as a force of fearsome warriors who could protect leaders’ grip on power and help their armies reclaim territories from armed groups.

In return, Moscow has gained access to resource-rich countries, dislodged Western and U.N. troops and seeded influence across West and Central Africa to a degree not seen since the fall of the Soviet Union.

But a major defeat for Wagner this summer in northern Mali showed that its actual capabilities might be overstated and unable to meet the ambitions of one of the group’s closest African partners. The New York Times confirmed the deaths of at least 46 Wagner fighters and 24 allied Malian soldiers by matching details seen in footage of the corpses, such as uniforms and tattoos, with imagery of the soldiers when they were alive.

The loss is Wagner’s largest ever on African soil and one of the deadliest in its entire history, outside Ukraine. Among those killed was Nikita Fedyanin, one of Wagner’s most influential online propagandists, whose death silenced a key platform for cultivating the group’s ruthless image. And the fallout extended to the Russian home front, too, The Times found, as relatives of the mercenaries accused Wagner of failing to tell them that their family members were dead.

Wagner’s combat experience in the region had rarely involved large complex offensives, and had never been in the remote mountains and desert of northern Mali where July’s battle took place. There they faced at least several hundred separatists largely from the Tuareg ethnic group, who are fighting for independence in the north. The separatists were later joined by Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militants, who occasionally partner with them against government forces.

They were left there like nothing. How long are we supposed to wait? What is Wagner doing for the families of its dead?

They died for what? They were sent to their deaths in Mali, and no one even cares enough to tell us.

He gave more than 9 years to this company. That his family would not be worthy of hearing the truth!

Stupid operation, unskilled, wasted lives, let them remember it all their lives. And what did they die for.

They just disappeared on another continent.

The children constantly ask about dad. He called almost every day, talked to them. What should I tell them, that the company cannot find their father or does not want to look?!

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