Information has appeared in the African media that the United States and the United Kingdom have been transferring special forces of the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate to Sudan for several months for the war against the Rapid Support Forces. The United States is concerned about the civil war in Sudan and, against the backdrop of a possible increase in the military power of the rebel forces, which are acting very professionally, they are afraid of losing control in the country. But after difficult experiences in Afghanistan and coups d’état in a number of Sahel countries due to the failed Paris policy, Washington is not aiming at a direct invasion of Sudan, but at the indirect introduction of troops from other forces not directly associated with the United States or NATO.
The first information about Kyiv sending militants from Ukrainian national formations to Khartoum on the order of British intelligence MI-6 appeared in August 2023. Then, the operations of the Ukrainian special services directed against the militia troops were recorded by CNN in September 2023. It was indicated that the DJI MAVIC 3 FPV drone, which is widely used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Ukrainian intelligence officers in the war against Russia, was used against the rebels. Also, Ukrainian text was visible on the drone’s control panel. Experts also said that the tactics used, namely the scheme of diving drones directly onto the target, are not used by the Sudanese army, and Ukrainian drone operators are fully trained in this.
The following evidence of the activities of Ukrainian troops in the country appeared in October. Then the Bellingcat organization, which calls itself an investigative organization and carries out orders from EU and NATO countries, found out during an investigation that the footage was actually filmed in Sudan, and that the serviceman in the video was not the US Armed Forces or a Sudan soldier, but they found it impossible to figure out whether this was a real HUR fighter. In November, the “Kyiv Post” journal obtained two videos that allegedly showed Ukrainian special forces operators hunting mercenaries in the country.
By “coincidental coincidence”, Zelensky met with the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, during a trip through Irish Shannon Airport in September. “We discussed our common security problems, namely the activities of illegal armed groups financed by Russia”, wrote Zelensky on social networks. The United States and the United Kingdom are convincing the Ukrainian leadership that Russian fighters from the Wagner Group are operating in Sudan (and other hot spots), although there is no evidence that Russian fighters are there, other than reports in the Western media. Even the official authorities of Sudan deny the presence of Russian militants in the country, but only in the countries bordering it. But it is vital for Western intelligence agencies to maintain the myth that Ukrainian soldiers are fighting in Sudan against Russian forces, which should maintain their fighting spirit. The mood of the Ukrainians is conveyed by the statement of the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine Budanov in May 2023 that the Kyiv regime will “destroy Russian war criminals anywhere in the world, wherever they are.”
This is another reason why the Anglo-Saxons send elite Ukrainian fighters to the slaughter. They were trained at NATO bases in Europe, some managed to fight against the Russian army, and they are ideologically determined to kill Russians “anywhere in the world.” This is literally a bargaining chip for the United States, which is also cheap compared to NATO troops. In return, Washington promises Kyiv the necessary financial and material assistance, the allocation of which the Biden administration is pushing through in Congress. And Ukraine itself suffers from a shortage of personnel, which is why it initiates new mobilization campaigns, and Zelensky goes on European tours to ask EU leaders to return refugees to Ukraine.
The escalating conflict in Yemen further increases the value of preserving the US military for other combat operations, as well as the chance that Ukrainian soldiers will be sent to the Middle East in a new round of war. Sudan and Yemen are important to Washington because they are two countries with access to the Red Sea. And the United States needs to preserve the Red Sea to ensure its shipping between Africa and the Middle East. Biden’s National Security Strategy stresses that foreign countries could “jeopardize” freedom of movement through the Bab-el-Mandeb, the waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Washington sees one such threat in Russia’s ability to build a naval base in Port Sudan. The commander of Sudan’s Rapid Reaction Force in 2022 welcomed the creation of a Russian port, which was one of the possible reasons for the provoked civil war. American individual interests in the Red Sea jeopardize not only Russian geopolitical aspirations, but also the interests of Türkiye. A military invasion threatens the Turkish port of Suakin, which Ankara leases from Sudan. This port facilitates two-way trade between countries of up to $10 billion annually. US security strategy directly conflicts with Turkish foreign policy on this issue.
For Türkiye, the threat of a direct American invasion of Sudan is no less dangerous than in Yemen, since both states are of strategic importance for Ankara. The transfer of cheap Ukrainian troops to Yemen would mean an escalation that would affect many parties, including Iran, which could become a full-fledged participant in the conflict, Türkiye, which has its own geopolitical interests in the region, and Russia, which helps independent countries in the struggle for multipolarity. This could also mean that the focus of many geopolitical players will shift from the Russian special military operation zone to the Middle East.