CNN report on threat attacks: Is Kiev’s secret service attacking Wagner in Sudan?

CNN report on threat attacks
Is Kiev’s secret service attacking Wagner in Sudan?

September 20, 2023, 2:41 a.m

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Videos of drone attacks on Sudanese militias working with the Russian Wagner mercenaries are circulating on social media. The US broadcaster CNN reports, citing an anonymous Ukrainian military officer, that Kiev’s secret service could be behind the attacks.

Ukrainian intelligence services may be behind a series of drone strikes and a ground operation against a Wagner-backed militia near the Sudanese capital. That reports CNN with reference to an unnamed Ukrainian military source. Such an operation would mean that the war between Russia and Ukraine has spread far beyond the front lines, the report said.

Speaking to the US broadcaster, the Ukrainian military official described the operation as the work of a “non-Sudanese military.” When asked whether Kiev was behind the attacks, the source replied that “Ukrainian secret services were probably responsible.” CNN cited the fact that commercial drones, which are widely used in Ukraine, were involved in eight cases as evidence that the attacks had a Ukrainian origin. Ukrainian writing could be seen on the drone controller.

The operation included a series of attacks on the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is believed to be supported by the Russian mercenary group Wagner in its fight against the Sudanese army for control of the country. CNN was therefore unable to independently confirm Ukraine’s involvement in the series of attacks. However, video footage revealed the characteristics of Ukrainian-style drone strikes, it said.

Ukraine-style attacks

According to the report, at least eight of the attacks involved two commercially available drones that are widely used in Ukraine. According to CNN, Ukrainian text could be seen on the drone controller. Experts also said the tactics used – namely the pattern of drones flying directly towards their target – were highly unusual in Sudan and the wider African region.

Covert attacks by Ukraine in Sudan would represent a dramatic and provocative expansion of the theater of war, the report said. Apart from a series of Ukrainian drone strikes that penetrated deep into Russian territory, Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive is focused on the occupied east and south of its own country.

Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the attacks captured in the drone footage. Parts of these videos have been circulating on social media since Thursday. According to CNN, footage of the ground operation has not yet been released.