Kiev, Ukraine and N’Djamena, Chad CNN —
Ukrainian intelligence services are likely behind a series of drone strikes and a ground operation against a Wagner-backed militia near the Sudanese capital, according to a CNN investigation. This suggests that the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have spread far beyond the front lines.
Speaking to CNN, a Ukrainian military source described the operation as the work of a “non-Sudanese military.” When asked whether Kiev was behind the attacks, the source simply replied that “Ukrainian secret services were probably responsible.”
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 unable to independently confirm Ukraine’s involvement in the series of attacks. However, video footage obtained by CNN revealed the characteristics of Ukrainian-style drone strikes.
At least eight of the attacks involved two commercially available drones that are widely used in Ukraine. Ukrainian text was visible on the drone controller. Experts also said the tactics used – namely the pattern of drones charging directly at their target – were highly unusual in Sudan and the wider African region.
Covert attacks by Ukraine in Sudan would mean a dramatic and provocative expansion of Kiev’s theater of war against Moscow. Aside from a series of Ukrainian drone strikes that penetrated deep into Russian territory, Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive has focused on the occupied east and south of the country.
Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the attacks captured in the drone footage. After the publication of this report, Andrii Yusov, representative of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, told CNN: “We can neither confirm nor deny this.”
Parts of these videos have been circulating on social media since Thursday. Footage of the ground operation has not yet been published.
A senior Sudanese military source said he had “no knowledge of a Ukrainian operation in Sudan” and did not believe this was true.
Several U.S. officials appeared unaware of the alleged incident and expressed surprise at suggestions that the attacks and ground operation may have been carried out by Ukrainian forces.
The videos, which alternate between the pilot’s view, the view of a drone observing from above, and that of the air traffic controller himself, show a series of drone strikes in and around Omdurman, a city on the other side of the Nile from the capital Khartoum, leading to a has become a focal point of fighting between the two rival factions.
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First-person view (FPV) drones allow pilots to view operations from the drone’s perspective by wearing goggles or using a monitor to watch the live feed. What looks like a DJI MAVIC 3 drone can be seen in the videos filming the drone strikes. Both types of drones are commercially available and are widely used by the Ukrainian armed forces.
The DJI MAVIC 3 drone has a maximum flight distance of 30 kilometers (around 18 miles), a video transmission range of 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) and a flight time of 46 minutes, suggesting that the pilot would have operated the drone inside , or very close to the city.
In the video, which shows the drone controller’s monitor, text in English and Ukrainian can be seen, including “Зупинити” or “Stop.” The apparently foreign drone operator can also be seen in the air traffic controller’s reflection, although he is wearing a balaclava and cannot be identified.
A British researcher who runs Caliber Obscura, a weapons identification website, analyzed the footage for CNN and said the device matched those used by Ukrainian forces to control DJI MAVIC drones.
CNN has geolocated the locations of the small attacks and ground operations seen in the drone videos, but has not been able to independently verify the date the videos were taken. Multiple attacks on the Shambat Bridge, which connects Omdurman and Khartoum, appeared to coincide with local reports on social media of an attack on September 8.
According to another senior Sudanese source, the attacks came just two days after Wagner facilitated a large arms convoy into Sudan via an RSF garrison in al-Zurug in the southwest of the country, near the border with Chad. The official told CNN that a large number of vehicles, including several trucks carrying Wagner weapons, arrived in Zurug on September 6. CNN obtained satellite images that showed over 100 vehicles, including dozens of trucks, at the garrison on the same day. Level Sudanese sources reported on the weapons convoy.
Two Chadian military whistleblowers told CNN that the convoy traveled through Chad to Zurug, which would signal an expansion of Russia and Wagner’s sphere of influence in Africa, which is known to include Mali, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Libya.
The powerful Russian mercenary group played a public and crucial role in Moscow’s foreign military operations, particularly in Ukraine, and has been repeatedly accused of committing atrocities. In Africa, it has helped support Moscow’s growing influence and seizure of resources.
Six drone strikes targeted pickup trucks driving on the Shambat Bridge. Eight other attacks hit parked vehicles, buildings and gunmen in Omdurman and the western suburb of Ombada, where the Sudanese military has carried out a series of airstrikes on RSF positions in recent weeks, reportedly killing scores of civilians.
One of the videos showed at least three foreign fighters appearing to carry out an attack on a building. In a clip apparently shot on a body camera, the soldiers wore night vision goggles and one of the soldiers appeared to be carrying a rocket launcher. An aerial photo showing troops advancing on the building was geolocated by CNN in a neighborhood in Omdurman near where the drone strikes took place.
CNN has previously reported that, according to sources, Wagner supplied the RSF with surface-to-air missiles to support the RSF’s paramilitary fighters and their leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – commonly known as Hemedti – while he was fighting with General Abdel Fattah al. Fighting for power – Burhan, Sudan’s military ruler and head of its armed forces.
Wim Zwijnenburg, project manager for humanitarian disarmament at PAX, a Dutch peace organization, said it was the first time the drones identified by CNN had been observed in Africa.
“Such (FPV) loitering drones are being seen for the first time ever on the African continent,” said Zwijnenburg, who specializes in new military technologies, including drones. “However, we have seen an increase in the use of such drones in Ukraine over the last year.”
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zwijnenburg said both Ukrainian and Russian forces have experimented with FPV drones and equipped them with rocket-propelled grenades. The highly maneuverable, precision munition can carry a payload large enough to take out a vehicle. While drones have already been used to drop bombs in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Libya, the use of armed commercial drones that explode on impact is new in Africa, he added.
Some of the people seen in the footage wore local clothing and light-colored combat fatigues similar to those worn by RSF soldiers and allied militias. In a video, fighters with AK-47s can be seen fleeing the scene.
The RSF, which has a large presence in the capitals of Khartoum and Omdurman, has been frequently attacked from the air by the Sudanese military since fighting between the two groups in April. In a speech on Thursday, RSF chief Hemedti said his troops had all but dominated the state of Khartoum, which includes Omdurman, and spoke of recent indiscriminate airstrikes in Omdurman and other cities.
AP
Rapid Support Forces leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) speaks at a press conference in Khartoum, Sudan, in April 2019.
Before violence erupted this spring, Burhan and Hemedti were allies of a military junta that toppled an internationally recognized interim government in 2021. The Sudanese military government had received Wagner’s support in the past, but Hemedti emerged as Wagner’s preferred ally over the years in the country.
When fighting broke out, Wagner completely abandoned the Sudanese army and supported Hemedti and his fighters in the conflict.
CNN has uncovered arms delivery routes that have helped sustain this conflict, passing through key Wagner transit points: the Russian air and naval base in the Syrian coastal region of Latakia, Wagner bases in Libya and Bangui Airport in the Central African Republic.
Wagner has a significant presence in the Central African Republic and much of eastern Libya, which borders Sudan and where renegade General Khalifa Haftar controls large areas.
“Around 90% of the RSF’s weapons come from Wagner,” the senior Sudanese source told CNN, adding that Wagner’s arms supplies to the RSF continued unabated despite the deaths of the mercenary group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his deputy Dmitry Utkin in a plane crash on August 23rd.
Prigozhin’s death has raised questions about the future of Wagner’s operations in Africa, where the mercenary group has used brutal tactics to support militant groups and authoritarian regimes in exchange for natural resources. These resources – including huge concessions in Sudanese gold mining – are believed to have supported Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine and helped the country evade sweeping Western sanctions.
PMC Wagner/Telegram/Portal
The late Yevgeny Prigozhin shared a video on August 21, days before his death, in which he suggested he had been with Wagner mercenaries in Africa.
Analysts and researchers have speculated that the Kremlin has consolidated control over the mercenary group’s activities in Africa as part of a larger effort to integrate the group into the Russian Defense Ministry following Prigozhin’s failed mutiny in June.
Prigozhin had recently been flying back to Russia from Africa when his plane crashed outside Moscow, killing all passengers on board. Two days after Prigozhin’s death, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov embarked on a five-country trip through old Wagner stomping grounds: Libya, Syria, Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
During the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg in late July – less than a month before Prigozhin’s death – the head of Russian military intelligence (GRU) covert offensive operations, General Andrey Averyanov, attended meetings with the heads of Mali and the Central African Republic part, Eritrea and Burkina Faso.
“We have repeatedly asked the Kremlin about Wagner’s support for the RSF and they have told us that they have no information about it,” the senior Sudanese source told CNN. “The Kremlin and Wagner have become one for us.”
In the fight against Russia, Kiev has attached strategic importance to deepening relations abroad, including between African countries. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made three trips to the continent last year, visiting more than ten countries.
“Russia is trying very hard to keep countries in its sphere of influence through coercion, bribery and fear… Russia has two tools for its work in Africa, the most powerful are propaganda and Wagner,” Kuleba said in a recent interview with Agence France-Presse.
“Our strategy is not to replace Russia, but to free Africa from Russia’s influence,” he added.
This story has been updated with additional responses from Ukraine.