Mali says Moscow has vowed support for Bamako after Malian government troops and fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner suffered heavy losses at the hands of rebels and insurgents.
Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said on X that he and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had held talks by telephone.
Three days of intense fighting erupted near the Algerian border in the volatile north on July 25 at a military camp at Tinzaouatene.
Tuareg-led separatists said on Thursday they had killed 84 fighters from Wagner and 47 Malian soldiers.
'Foreign sponsors'
In a video seen by AFP on Friday, Malian Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga acknowledged they lost "a battle" at Tinzaouatene.
But "we are never going to lose the war against the terrorists," he said, in the video released Wednesday for Pan African Women's Day.
The Malian foreign minister said on X on Thursday that talks with his Russian counterpart focused on "current security issues in Mali, in a context of a fierce battle against allied terrorist groups, supported by foreign sponsors".
Lavrov "took this opportunity to reaffirm that his country stands firmly beside Mali and the cou ntries of the AES confederation," Diop added.
ECOWAS breakaway
The military leaders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso broke away from the West African regional grouping ECOWAS earlier this year and have formed the Confederation of Sahel States (AES).
Mali's army has admitted it suffered a "large number" of deaths during the fighting but gave no figure.
Analysts have said it was the heaviest loss suffered so far by Wagner in Africa.
The Al-Qaeda-linked group Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) has also claimed it attacked a Malian army convoy and allies from Wagner south of Tinzaouatene.
Lull in hostilities
After an eight-year lull, hostilities between Bamako and separatists fighting for an independent homeland resumed in August 2023.
The army's offensive culminated in the storming of the northern pro-independence stronghold of Kidal in November.
The West African nation's military leaders, who seized power in 2020 and 2021 coups, have made a priority of retaking control of all of the country from the separatists and jihadist forces linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Under Colonel Assimi Goita, the junta broke off its traditional alliance with former colonial ruler France and has turned towards Russia.
France's anti-insurgence force was pushed out in 2022 followed by a UN peacekeeping mission the next year.
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