Despite setbacks at home, Kiev sends soldiers to Sudan: Ukrainians fight Wagner mercenaries in Africa

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The Ukrainians go on the offensive by defending themselves against the Russian invaders. They are being pushed back at various places at the front; over the weekend they had to give up the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka.

Reports that Ukrainian special forces are on a secret mission in Africa are all the more surprising. Your task: take out Russian Wagner mercenaries intent on overthrowing the government in Sudan. Apparently they were successful, as the photos show. But what has Ukraine actually lost in Africa?

There are several videos about this, the Kyiv Post reports. One shows three men in uniform, kneeling on the sand with their arms behind their backs. During interrogations with other uniformed soldiers, believed to be Ukrainian, they said they belonged to a Wagner unit of 100 men and that they had advanced via the Central African Republic to the Sudanese capital Karthum.

Other videos show footage taken with drones. You see how soldiers with high-tech equipment, probably Wagner mercenaries, are attacked by the planes. The photos were taken in Omdurman, the country’s largest city, which is separated from Karthum by the Nile.

Secret service troops

According to the Kyiv Post, citing a source from the Ukrainian security and defense sector, Ukrainian troops have been deployed in Sudan for months. The source said an operation is currently underway to “clean up the Wagner private military unit, its local terrorists and the special services of the Russian Federation.” The Ukrainian unit is said to be a member of the secret service.

CNN reported in the fall that, according to its own investigation, the Ukrainian secret services were probably behind a series of drone attacks and a ground operation against Wagner near the Sudanese capital. However, there is no official confirmation of a deployment of Ukrainian troops in Africa.

“Destroy Wagner mercenaries worldwide”

The fact that Ukrainians are fighting outside their weakened country is surprising. Why do you do that? The operation is probably part of the promise that secret service chief Kyrylo Budanow (38) made in May 2023. At the time, he vowed to “destroy Russian war criminals around the world, wherever they are.”

Military analyst Ruslan Leviyev, 37, told ‘Bild’ that the move would suit Budanov and his goal of pursuing Wagner mercenaries around the world. But he also says the effort has only symbolic value. “This action would not change the current precarious situation of Ukrainians in their own country and should only create positive news at home.”

Uncertainty in Moscow

Does it even make sense for Ukrainian soldiers to fight abroad if there is a shortage of personnel? “Yes!” Glen Grant (70), former lieutenant colonel in the British Army, defense analyst at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future and former advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, tells Blick. Grant: “Because Russia’s goal is to maximize chaos, create additional problems for the West and steal valuable resources wherever possible, especially in vulnerable Africa.”

Because Moscow abhors uncertainty, concerns about the effectiveness of its foreign operations and actual failures in certain places create uncertainty and reduce its standing as a global power.

Wagner supports insurgents

A bloody battle is raging in Sudan between ruler Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan (64) and his former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo (49), known as ‘Hemeti’. Behind Burhan is the army, behind Daglo is the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), 90 percent of whose arsenal comes from the Wagner Group. The Russians are especially interested in the gold mines.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (46) met Burhan last autumn. He said at the time: “We talked about our common security problems, in particular the activities of armed groups financed by Russia.”

Source: Blick