Ukraine deployed troops to Sudan to partake in war: WSJ

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Wall Street Journal
6 Mar 2024 14:56
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Al-Burhan turned to Zelensky in April 2023 for assistance; an unlikely ally that had received Sudanese arms since the war in Ukraine broke out.

Ukrainian soldiers pose for a photo in Bakhmut, Donetsk, on February 21, 2023. (AP)

The Wall Street Journal revealed that Ukrainian authorities sent military personnel to Sudan in 2023 to take part in the ongoing clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

According to the American newspaper, SAF leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan contacted Volodymyr Zelensky when clashes broke out in the country's capital, Khartoum. Taking al-Burhan's plea for assistance seriously, Ukrainian authorities landed commandos in Sudan to assist the SAF, pushing back against paramilitary forces in the region.

The hastiness of Zelensky in assisting al-Burhan stems from the fact that the commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Army had discreetly supplied Kiev with weapons since the Russian Special Operation in Ukraine was launched in February 2022, WSJ said, citing unnamed Ukrainian and Sudanese officials.

A few weeks following the outbreak of clashes, stemming from a power struggle between al-Burhan and the RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), Ukrainian commandos landed in Sudan and assisted the SAF.

WSJ says that the Ukrainian move also constitutes an "audacious new venture," attempting to disrupt Russia's military and economic operations abroad.

War is a risky business

"It’s impossible to overcome Russia simply by fighting on a small piece of land, like the front line in Ukraine," a 40-year-old Ukrainian officer, who goes by the call sign Prada and led one of the Ukrainian teams in Sudan, told the newspaper.

"If they have gold mines in Sudan, we need to make them not profitable," the officer said in reference to Russian private military organizations that provide security services across the world in exchange for mining contracts.

Lutenient General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, refused to comment on the matter when asked by WSJ, however, he did say that the Ukrainian military command does have a "rationale for sending Ukrainian forces abroad."

"War is a risky business. We are in a full-fledged war with Russia...They have units in different parts of the world, and we sometimes try to strike them there," Budanov revealed.

From a humanitarian perspective, the war in Sudan has led the United Nations' World Food Programme to declare that the unfolding events risk "triggering the world's largest hunger crisis."

Clashes that erupted on April 15, 2023, concentrated in Khartoum and Omdurman, leaving millions of civilians stranded, as the RSF rushed to overtake main governmental and military buildings and infrastructure. Tens of thousands have tragically lost their lives in the relentless conflict, as both opposing forces continue to engage in an enduring war with neither faction gaining a decisive advantage.