Social media posted footage showing a large number of russian-made vehicles passing through Mali. At first glance, this looked like a "luxury" gift to the Kremlin's African satellite state, given that russian troops are forced to switch to "jihad mobiles" in battles against the Ukrainian army.
Later, the bmpd blog of the Russian Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies clarified that it was a convoy of equipment belonging to the Africa Corps of the russian Defense Ministry. This convoy included seven T-72B3 tanks, five BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, and more than fifty other types of armored vehicles, which is significantly more than previously thought.
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It should be noted that the term Africa Corps refers to units of the Wagner Group private military company, which are currently operating on the African continent under the direct control of the russian Defense Ministry. This is not only about Mali, but also about Libya.
It is worth noting that this convoy includes equipment comparable in size or even superior to the entire Malian armed forces.
According to The Military Balance 2024, at the beginning of last year, the Malian army had only two PT-76 amphibious light tanks, five BRDM-2 armoured scout cars, 63 armored personnel carriers of various types, 274 wheeled armored vehicles of various types, and more than 30 units of D-30 howitzers and BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers.
At the same time, there is no publicly available information about the total number of russian troops currently deployed in Mali and the amount of equipment and weapons the Africa Corps may have in the country.
We can observe an interesting logic in Russian actions: they have created an advantage in certain weapon categories over the country where they are currently operating, which is economically beneficial for sustaining the war against Ukraine.
Furthermore, the decision to send an armored group consisting of seven tanks, five IFVs, seven APCs and 50 wheeled armored vehicles of various types to Mali may look quite rational to russians. For instance, the same number of armored vehicles could easily be lost by russian invaders in eastern Ukraine within just half a week of fighting against the Ukrainian armed forces.
This brings us back to the question of the priorities russians are currently using in the deployment and distribution of armored vehicles to achieve their military and political goals.
Earlier Defense Express reported about two problems faced by TOS-1, TOS-2 systems on Ukrainian battlefields.
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