Ukraine's Special Forces Start Hunting Down Russians Around the World

Kyiv's special forces are targeting Russian mercenaries in Syria, a Ukrainian media outlet has reported.

It comes nine months after a separate report by CNN said that Ukrainian special forces were likely behind drone strikes and a ground operation against a Russian mercenary militia in Sudan where a civil war is raging.

Newsweek has contacted the GUR, and foreign ministries of Russia and Syria, as well as the government of Sudan for comment on the claims by the media outlets which raise the prospect that the consequences of Vladimir Putin's invasion have spread far beyond Ukraine.

In a report on Monday, the English-language Kyiv Post said it had obtained video from Ukraine's military intelligence directorate (GUR) filmed in March that shows its special forces working with Syrian rebels attacking Russian mercenaries fighting alongside the troops of President Bashar al-Assad, a Putin ally.

Putin intervened in Syria in 2015 to prop up Assad's regime and since then, there has been a permanent deployment of Russian troops in the country.

The video by the Post was shared on YouTube and purports to show coordinated attacks on Russian mercenary positions in the Golan Heights, taking down checkpoints, strongholds and convoys.

The Ukrainian operation includes the use of rocket-propelled grenades and improvised "Tarab" mortars to attack defensive positions, the Post said, adding that what looks like command wire or radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) attacked vehicles.

In September 2023, a CNN investigation highlighted a Ukrainian military operation in Sudan. There the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is fighting against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in a conflict that has sparked a humanitarian crisis.

Citing a Ukrainian military source, CNN said that it had found Kyiv's special services "were likely responsible" for attacks on the RSF, thought to be getting help from the Wagner mercenary group whose troops have fought for Putin in Ukraine.

While unable to independently confirm Kyiv's involvement, CNN said footage showed the characteristics of Ukraine-style drone attacks, in which the devices swooped onto their targets in and around Omdurman, which is across the River Nile from the capital Khartoum.

What appear to be DJI Magic 3 drones—which are commercially available and widely used by Ukrainian forces—were involved in at least eight strikes and Ukrainian text is also seen on the device's controller, the outlet said.

"We can neither confirm nor deny this" GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov told CNN at the time, while a high-level Sudanese military source said he had "no knowledge of a Ukrainian operation in Sudan."

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