Moscow plans to expel more than 20 German diplomats in reaction to its own diplomats being told to leave Berlin, Russian state media reports.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is preparing new brigades that will “show themselves at the front,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, without revealing when and how many fresh units would be deployed.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Russian mercenaries closely linked with Sudan’s warring generals: NAIROBI — Over recent years, Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group has established close ties with Sudan’s security forces and sought to exploit these connections to advance Moscow’s economic and military interests, including lucrative gold mining concessions and arms deals.
Inside Sudan, Wagner has previously provided equipment and training to the security forces, advised government leaders and conducted information operations, according to a leaked U.S. intelligence document seen by The Washington Post.
But the outbreak of intense fighting last weekend between forces led by rival Sudanese generals, which has rocked the country and killed at least 400 people, has presented Moscow and its Kremlin-backed mercenaries with an urgent dilemma. They have a great deal to lose if they back the wrong side, The Post reports.
And even if they sit out the conflict, Sudan’s collapse could represent a major setback for them. At stake is a reliable alliance, between two countries at odds with the West, that has not only yielded gold business and arms deals but the prospect of a strategic Russian naval base on the Red Sea at Port Sudan. During a visit to the Sudanese capital Khartoum in February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the base with Sudan’s leaders and the goal of completing it by the end of 2023, according to a U.S. intelligence document, part of the Discord document trove allegedly leaked online by a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.
There are no confirmed reports that Wagner personnel are directly involved in the fighting. But several sources say that a Libyan militia with close ties to Wagner sent supplies to Sudanese forces led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who heads the heavily armed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The RSF denied having any ties with Wagner in a tweet on Saturday.
