Russia to Sign Arms Exchange Agreement with Sudan

On Saturday, May 25, the Assistant Commander-in-Chief of Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF), Yasser al-Attah said that a delegation of military officials will soon travel to Russia to agree to exchange “vital weapons and ammunition” in return for a Russian logistics center in Port Sudan. According to a new report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Al-Attah also said the planned Russian center as “not really a military base.”

According to the report, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Putin's special representative for Africa and the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov met with SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and several other Sudanese officials during a two-day visit to Sudan on April 28 and 29.

Russia may change its side of support in the Sudanese civil war to support the SAF and establish its naval base in the Red Sea.

Russia claims that the Sudanese military was able to retake several districts of Khartoum using Iranian drones.

According to the ISW's analysts, Russian support for the Sudanese Armed Forces would greatly benefit Iran, as it would bring Russian and Iranian policies and strategies in the region closer together.

Russia, together with the Wagner Group, was directly involved in the 2019 coup in Sudan, supporting Hemedtee and his militant group in the conflict and supplying weapons. Wagner, in particular, provided surface-to-air missiles for use by the opposition Rapid Response Force (RSF).

Other Topics of Interest

Russia Lost More Than 500 Military Personnel in Syria, Many from Elite Units

A BBC Russian Service investigation identified the deaths of 543 Russian regular military and Wagner PMC personnel who served in Moscow’s almost decade-long campaign supporting the Assad regime.

Last May, Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) chief Kyrylo Budanov promised to “destroy Russian war criminals anywhere in the world, wherever they are.”

An exclusive video obtained by the Kyiv Post in February showed Ukrainian special forces interrogating captured Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC in the Republic of Sudan as part of HUR’s ongoing campaign in Sudan as part of Budanov’s declared mission.

In part of the video, fighters of HUR’s Tymyr special unit are seen inspecting a military transport in which there are the bodies of killed Russian mercenaries. The truck has traces of intense shelling, and the body of a soldier with a Wagner PMC patch is visible through the windshield.