The victims, including Ukrainian national Yuri Yurov, were abducted by an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Niger, Moscow has said

Russian forces deployed in Mali have rescued two employees of a Russian geological exploration company who had been held hostage in the Sahel for nearly two years, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Tuesday.

According to an official statement, the freed captives - Russian citizen Oleg Greta, 64, and Ukrainian national Yuri Yurov, 56 - were abducted by the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), in 2024 in Niger's Tillaberi region.

"As a result of a special operation conducted by the Africa Corps in the Republic of Mali, employees of a Russian geological exploration company captured in July 2024 in Niger by the terrorist group... were freed," the Russian Defense Ministry wrote in its Telegram channel.

The ministry said both men were found in poor health and suffering from severe physical exhaustion following their detention. After initial medical checks at an Africa Corps facility, they are to be flown to Moscow for further treatment and rehabilitation, it added.

The Sahel has been gripped by a jihadist insurgency led by the JNIM and Islamic State since 2012, when violence first erupted in Mali before spilling into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, despite a decade-long French military mission. All three West African states have since cut defense ties with France, their former colonial power, and turned to Russia for security support.

The African Corps - a unit of the Russian Defense Ministry - replaced the private military company (PMC) Wagner Group, which officially withdrew from the Sahel in June 2025.

Last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed claims that Moscow is destabilizing the insurgency-plagued region through the operations of the African Corps, calling them "baseless accusations." The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) - comprising Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso - has accused France of sponsoring terrorism in the region in an attempt to oust governments it considered unfriendly to Paris.

Ukraine has also faced accusations of providing intelligence and supplying kamikaze drones to the terrorist groups behind the deadly insurgency in Mali.

Earlier this month, Abdul Niang, a senior Malian media executive, told RT that defense cooperation with Russia has helped Mali and its AES allies strengthen their armed forces, reclaim strategic ground, and intensify operations against jihadist groups.

(RT.com)