Ukraine was probably behind an operation in Sudan that included drone strikes targeting a militia backed by the Russian Wagner mercenary group, according to a report.
CNN cited a Ukrainian military source as saying that Ukrainian special services “were likely responsible” for attacks on the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is in dispute with the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, about a proposed move to a civilian-led government.
The RSF is thought to be receiving assistance from Wagner, the group founded by the late businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, which gives the Kremlin a foothold in Africa.
Prigozhin died in a plane crash in August, two months after his Wagner troops staged a mutiny against Russia’s military establishment in a challenge to Vladimir Putin’s rule. The Kremlin has denied involvement in Prigozhin’s death, but there is uncertainty about what will happen to Wagner, especially in Africa, where its involvement has been linked to Moscow’s efforts to finance its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While CNN couldn’t independently confirm Ukraine’s involvement in the series of strikes, it said video footage showed that they bore the hallmarks of Ukrainian drone attacks. Newsweek has emailed the Ukrainian defense ministry for comment.
CNN said it geolocated the videos showing drone strikes to around Omdurman, a city across the Nile river from the capital Khartoum, which has become a focal point of fighting between the two rival factions. The strikes began on September 8, two days after Wagner sent several trucks loaded with weapons to an RSF garrison.
What appears to be a DJI MAVIC 3 drone—commercially available and widely used by Ukrainian forces—can be seen in the videos filming the drone strikes, while visible on the monitor of the drone controller is text in English and the Ukrainian word for “stop.”
However, CNN said that a high-level Sudanese military source said he had “no knowledge of a Ukrainian operation in Sudan.”
U.S. officials told the network they were unaware of the alleged incident and expressed surprise that such an operation may have been conducted by Ukrainian forces.
If confirmed, it signals how the impact of Vladimir Putin’s invasion is being felt further afield. Africa has been impacted by the decision of Russia to pull out of the Black Sea Grain deal in July, which guaranteed the safe passage of food from Ukraine to the continent.