Kyiv Post has exclusively obtained two videos purporting to show Ukrainian special forces operators hunting mercenaries employed by the Kremlin’s Wagner Group in Sudan.
According to a source in Ukraine’s security and defense sector, an operation is currently ongoing to “clean up the Wagner PMC, their local terrorists and the Russian Federation's special services” in the African country.
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Speaking to Kyiv Post, the source added: “The footage probably shows the work of special units of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR).” He declined to give details citing security concerns.
The source said the footage had been filmed “in the last two weeks”, in an unnamed Sudanese urban location. Kyiv Post has not independently verified either video.
SEE ALSO: EXPLAINED: Why is Ukraine Hunting Wagner Fighters in Sudan?
The first video in black and white appears to have been filmed at night by a drone using infrared imaging. A small unit of men surround a compound and targets within are highlighted in the video. In one set of images, an attacker uses a hand-held rocket launcher to fire into a building window.
A number of explosions then follow with the footage switching between infrared night camera and regular views lit by explosion flashes. Some of the men in the building begin to fire back while others can be seen trying to escape.
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The second video is shot during the day, also from an aircraft hovering at 200-400 meters above the ground. No Ukrainian operatives are shown but a number of men who appear to be targets run through the streets of a densely-populated town or small village.
Several explosions ranging in scale from grenade-like to similar to a medium calibre howitzer shell can be seen in the vicinity. The bigger strikes create fireballs stretching the length of a low-rise apartment building.
Others throw smoke and dust six stories high into the air. The source of the blasts is not clear. Some explosions hit building roofs. No casualties are visible.
The Ukrainian government has neither officially acknowledged deployment of field operators to Sudan nor conduct of operations targeting Wagner fighters in the country. Last month CNN reported a series of drone strikes targeting Wagner-backed rebels near Sudan’s capital were “characteristic” of Kyiv’s special forces.
Ukrainian news portal RBC-Ukraine contacted Ukraine’s HUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov at the time for clarification on the situation in Sudan, to which he replied: “We can neither confirm nor deny this.”
Why is Ukraine operating in Sudan?
"You can also recall the words of General Budanov that Ukraine will destroy Russian war criminals anywhere in the world, wherever they are,” Yusov also said.
Russia, along with the Wagner Group, was directly involved in the coup in Sudan in 2019, supporting Hemedti and his fighters in the conflict and supplying weapons, with Wagner specifically providing surface-to-air missiles to the Rapid Reaction Force (RSF).
A senior Sudanese source told CNN 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.
In September, President Zelensky said he'd held an impromptu meeting with the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, while travelling through Ireland's Shannon airport.
"We discussed our common security challenges, namely the activities of illegal armed groups financed by Russia," he said in a post on social media.
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