Russia's Wagner mercenaries are trying to smuggle weapons into Ukraine via Africa, US says

• The Wagner Group is trying to smuggle weapons into Ukraine from Mali, the US State Department said.
• Officials said the deals hadn't been finalized yet. Wagner has long operated in Africa.

Russia's Wagner mercenary group has been looking to Africa to try to get much-needed weapons for its fighting in Ukraine, the US State Department said on Monday.

It came after Wagner's accised Russia's traditional military of withholding resources from the group, which has been leading the fighting in the key battleground city of Bakhmut.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that there were "indications that Wagner has been attempting to purchase military systems from foreign suppliers and route these weapons through Mali as a third party," Reuters reported.

Miller said that the group has been willing to use fake paperwork to make such transactions, according to Reuters.

He said: "We have not seen as of yet any indications that these acquisitions have been finalized or executed, but we are monitoring the situation closely."

Wagner has sent thousands of mercenaries and prisoners to fight in Ukraine, particularly in the eastern city of Bakhmut, the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia's invasion.

In recent years the group has also been active in multiple countries in Africa, where it has been accused of war crimes.

Independent human-rights experts working with the United Nations have called for an investigation into the group's activities in Mali, which could involve possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Western countries have expressed concern about the group's actions in Mali since 2021, Reuters noted.

Wagner has suffered heavy losses in Ukraine, and Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin has blamed Russia's military for not giving the group enough ammunition.

Despite fighting on the same side, and despite Russia often relying on Wagner to make progress, the two groups have been part of an escalating public dispute.

Prigozhin in March said that Russia's government had cut off ammunition to his group in an "attempt to destroy" it. In April he threatened to withdraw from Bakhmut unless he got more ammunition.

Russia's military itself has suffered from weapons and equipment shortages throughout its invasion of Ukraine, with captured and escaped Russian fighters saying they were given insufficient, faulty, and decades-old equipment.

Western sanctions have limited Russia's ability to get more weapons, as well as parts and materials to make more. Prigozhin is also under Western sanctions.

In response, Russia has turned to other pariah states like Iran to get more weaponry to use in Ukraine.

But some Western parts and technologies have still been reaching Russia, sometimes via sales that have gone through other countries.