The Sahelian Alliance’s (AES) official information account on X, AES Info, reported on Wednesday that Poland helped Ukraine train Tuareg rebels that they consider to be terrorists and who carried out an ambush against Wagner in Mali late last month. This claim followed Ukraine walking back its military-intelligence representative’s boast claiming partial credit for that attack shortly after it happened, which led to Mali, Niger, and now Burkina Faso cutting their ties with Kiev. Here’s what the AES wrote:
“Malian terrorists trained in Ukraine and Poland to use suicide drones
A terrorist training network linked to the Tinzawatene attack in Mali has been uncovered. Ukrainian instructors, operating from an embassy in a country bordering Mali, are facilitating the sending of terrorists to Ukraine and Poland.
Terrorists have reportedly already been sent to both countries to learn how to use suicide drones and hone their combat techniques. According to security sources, new recruits are preparing to undergo the same training.
Amacharoudj Akli plays a central role in this trafficking.”
While it might sound sensational at first, it actually makes a lot of sense after thinking more deeply about it. For starters, Poland is the West’s gateway to Ukraine, so it’s very likely that terrorist-designated Tuareg rebels at the very least enter from that route. Furthermore, their security pact from last month makes them unofficial allies, including with respect to military training. It’s therefore possible that some of these fighters are jointly trained in Poland at bases where Ukraine is already receiving training.
Considering that Mali and Niger just asked the UN to investigate Ukraine’s boast, which included claims of passing along intelligence to terrorist-designated groups that those two suspect was handed to it by the US, it might only be a matter of time before more attention is given to Poland’s role in all of this too. None of its objective national interests are served by training Tuareg rebels. The only reason why it would agree to this is as a dual favor to its American patron and emerging Ukrainian client state.
Poland wants to present itself as the US’ most reliable ally in Europe, ergo why it also recently released a Russian detainee in exchange for nothing at all upon Washington’s request instead of swapping him for detained Poles in Belarus like they had earlier sought to do. As for Ukraine, Poland wants to reassure its officials that the ruling liberal-globalist coalition is a similarly reliable ally, which it believes can repair some of the damage that their conservative-nationalist predecessors inflicted on their ties last year.
In other words, the training of terrorist-designated West African groups on Polish soil is nothing but a way for Warsaw to curry more favor with Washington and Kiev as none of its objective national interests are served by this. Nevertheless, policymakers remain under the delusion that the aforesaid are advanced by presenting their country as those two’s most reliable ally, which could lead to Poland one day being exploited by Ukraine just as badly as it’s being exploited by the US if they don’t soon wake up.
