CNN Claims Ukraine Is Behind Strikes on Wagner-Backed Rebels in Sudan

Ukrainian special services may be behind a series of drone strikes and a ground operation against Wagner-backed rebels near Sudan’s capital, according to a CNN report.

CNN, citing Ukrainian military officials, conducted its own research indicating that the operation consisted of a series of attacks on the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is believed to be receiving assistance from the Russian Wagner mercenary group in the fight against the Sudanese army for control of the country.

Asked whether Ukraine was behind the attacks, CNN’s Ukrainian military source described the operation as the work of “non-Sudanese military.” According to the source, “Ukrainian special services are probably responsible for this,” possibly referring to the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR).

CNN says they could not independently confirm Ukraine's involvement in these attacks. But on the video materials received by CNN, there are signs of attacks using drones in the “Ukrainian style.”

According to the researchers, on one of the records on the monitor of the UAV controller, the Ukrainian-language “ЗУПИНИТИ” [STOP] is seen next to the English-language inscription “STOP.”

Ukrainian news portal RBC-Ukraine contacted Ukraine’s HUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov for clarification on the situation in Sudan, to which he replied: “We can neither confirm nor deny this.”

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Yusov also said that Russia has weakened its influence everywhere in the world and lost everything that it had conquered and accumulated for generations since the days of the Soviet Union.

“This also applies to Africa. You can also recall the words of General Budanov that Ukraine will destroy Russian war criminals anywhere in the world, wherever they are,” Yusov said.

However, a senior Sudanese military official told CNN he knew “nothing about the Ukrainian operation” and didn’t believe it could be true.

Russia, along with the Wagner Group, was directly involved in the coup in Sudan, supporting Hemedti and his fighters in the conflict and supplying weapons, with Wagner specifically providing surface-to-air missiles to the Rapid Reaction Force.

A senior Sudanese source told the publication that about 90 percent of RSF weapons came from Wagner, adding that the supply hasn’t stopped, despite the deaths of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his deputy Dmitry Utkin in a plane crash in Russia.