The tactics are reshaping the balance in the conflict between Mali's junta government and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a pro-independence armed coalition of predominantly Tuareg groups fighting over the Azawad territory in the country's north.
While the Tuaregs have ties to Kyiv, Mali has increasingly relied on Russian mercenaries for help in fighting both the rebels and the jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group roaming the wider Sahel region.
"Perhaps what binds us most to Ukraine is that, like us, it is suffering Russian barbarism and imperialism," Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the rebels, told AFP.
In July 2024, a Ukrainian military intelligence official, Andriy Yusov, implied that Kyiv had provided information to the rebels so they could carry out an attack.
Alongside jihadists, the rebels killed dozens of Russian mercenaries and Malian soldiers during fighting in the town of Tinzaouaten in Mali's northeast.
The FLA separatists have joined forces at times with the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
"Ukraine wanted to impress its Western partners by claiming that it was helping the rebels attack Russia in Africa as well," Ulf Laessing, director of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mali, told AFP.
"But it underestimated public opinion since the rebels are considered terrorists in the Sahel capitals," he said.
The FLA, which was created in November 2024, consists mostly of Tuaregs -- a semi-nomadic people of Berber descent who traditionally lived across stretches of the Sahara and Sahel and whose members have for decades sought a separate homeland.
- Ukrainian supplies -
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, all ruled by military juntas that have turned their backs on the West to move closer to Russia, have severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine, accusing it of supplying weapons to the FLA.
"As distant as it may seem, the war in Ukraine and terrorism in the Sahel are connected," Malian Prime Minister General Abdoulaye Maiga said at the United Nations in late September.
"The Ukrainian regime has become one of the main suppliers of kamikaze drones to terrorist groups around the world," he said.
Ukraine and the FLA, formed from several rebel movements seeking to seize territory in Tuareg-majority northeast Mali, have repeatedly denied these accusations.
"We have received no material assistance from Ukraine, no drones, no weapons, no other equipment," Ramadane said. "Our strength lies in our determination, our ingenuity and our ability to train and organise ourselves."
However, he said, some elements of the FLA received specialised training in Ukraine on the use of FPV (first-person view) drones.
"Back on the ground, they significantly strengthened their operational skills and, in turn, trained other fighters in this strategic area. Today, this technological mastery is fully integrated into our combat capabilities," he added.
Equipped with explosives, the drones are piloted from afar in real-time via a virtual reality headset. They allow the separatists to regularly carry out attacks against Malian army convoys or bases housing Russian mercenaries.
The mercenaries, part of the Africa Corps, the successor to the Wagner paramilitary group, are under the direct control of Russia's Ministry of Defence.
Using FPV drones "allows FLA to avoid direct confrontation" against the better-equipped Malian army and Africa Corps, said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS).
In February, the FLA said it shot down a Malian helicopter in the north using a drone, a claim the Malian army denied, instead saying it "intercepted and recovered" a "terrorist drone".
The JNIM also uses explosive drones to attack Malian forces.
- Inflatable pickups -
The Ukrainian army likewise uses inflatable decoys resembling tanks or defences to attract Russian strikes.
In July, Mali unveiled inflatable decoy pickup trucks believed to have belonged to the separatist rebels, although the FLA has not officially acknowledged possession of any such equipment.
Another innovation from Ukraine: Fibre-optic explosive drones, which are considered difficult to detect and jam.
In July, FLA rebels released images of one such drone, which are now believed to be an integral part of their arsenal.
Overall, however, "Turkish drones gave the Malian army and its Russian partner an advantage over the Tuareg rebels when they captured (the rebel stronghold of) Kidal in 2023", Laessing said.
"The FLA and the jihadists followed suit, using commercially available drones that they improved. But they remain inferior to Turkish models," he said.
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