Latest news with #droneWarfare
ABC News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Russia denies US claim it is "stalling" peace negotiations on ending Ukraine War
Russia has rejected accusations from the Trump administration that it is attempting to "stall for time", as negotiations with Ukraine and the US on bringing an end to the war grind to a halt. The US's envoy to the Ukraine War, Keith Kellogg, made the accusation on social media platform X on Monday, urging Russia and Ukraine to agree to a "immediate ceasefire" and further talks to end the war. "Russia cannot continue to stall for time while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine." Asked about the remarks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was grateful to US President Donald Trump's team for helping to facilitate talks but that Moscow was not stalling the talks. "No one is delaying anything here," Mr Peskov told reporters in Moscow. "We are naturally in favour of achieving the goals that we are trying to achieve through the special military operation via political and diplomatic means. "Therefore, we are not interested in drawing out anything." A lack of diplomatic progress between the US, Ukraine and Russia came as both sides of the three-year war increasingly turn to drone warfare. On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the country's domestic production of drones was about to increase in response to Russia's expanded barrages. Analysis by the Associated Press found Russia had launched a record 5,438 drones at Ukraine in June. On the same day Mr Zelenskyy vowed to increase production of drones, three people were killed and 35 others injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a factory deep in Russian territory. The strikes were targeted at a factory in the city of Izhevsk, some 1,300 kilometres from Ukraine, according to local governor Alexander Brechalov on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. Mr Brechalov did not name the targeted facility, but a Ukrainian security official earlier told Reuters that at least two long-range drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine struck the Kupol plant, which manufactures drones and air defence systems, and caused a fire. A column of black smoke could be seen billowing into the sky from the site of a fire at a cluster of buildings in videos shared by the Ukrainian official who said the plant's production facilities and warehouses had been hit. Reuters could not independently verify the claim. Mr Brechalov said he had he informed Russian President Vladimir Putin about the incident. it follows a similar attack last month in which Ukrainian drones targeted a number of Russian aircraft, destroying 34 per cent of Russia's air missile carriers Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been raging for more than three years, with Russian forces making some territorial gains in recent months. Forces at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin have focused their fighting in four regions in Ukraine's east. On Tuesday, the Russian-backed head of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, said "100 per cent" of the region was now occupied by Russia. Luhansk, which has an area of 26,700 square km, is the first Ukrainian region to fall fully under the established control of Russian forces since the country annexed Crimea in 2014. In September 2022, Mr Putin declared that Luhansk — along with the partially controlled Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — was being incorporated into Russia, a step Western European states said was illegal and that most of the world did not recognise. Ukraine says that Russia's claims to Luhansk and other areas of what is internationally recognised to be Ukraine are groundless and illegal, and Kyiv has promised to never recognise Russian sovereignty over the areas. Russia controls nearly 19 per cent of what is internationally recognised to be Ukraine. North Korea's state media showed on Monday leader Kim Jong Un draping coffins with the national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, as the countries marked a landmark military treaty. Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a strategic partnership treaty in June last year in Pyongyang, which included a mutual defence pact. In a series of photographs displayed in the backdrop of a gala performance by North Korean and visiting Russian artists in Pyongyang, the country's leader is seen by rows of a half a dozen coffins, covering them with flags and pausing briefly with both hands resting on them. The scene followed images of North Korean and Russian soldiers waving their national flags with patriotic notes written in Korean. Mr Kim was seen at the gala seemingly overcome with emotion and audience members wiping away tears. North Korea's state KRT television aired the event. Reuters
Washington Post
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Ukraine intelligence chief gives new details on Spiderweb drone operation
KYIV — For one year, six months and nine days, Ukraine's intelligence service carefully plotted, designed and built special drones, concealed in prefabricated mobile homes that were then transported across borders to strike an surprising blow thousands of miles away against Russia's strategic bomber fleet. Intelligence chief Vasyl Maliuk revealed to journalists new details of Operation Spiderweb in a two-hour conversation on Sunday about the plan to attack Russia's air bases on June 1 that crippled several long-range bombers and rewrote the rules for drone warfare.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Port Sudan strikes: Drone attacks raise stakes in new phase of bloody civil war
Paramilitary fighters appear to have opened a new phase in Sudan's civil war after being driven from the capital, in a move which some experts have described as a "shock and awe campaign".Just weeks after the army celebrated the recapture of Khartoum, its foe the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a series of unprecedented drone strikes on Port Sudan in the east of the attacks have led to worsening power blackouts, as well as city residents facing water shortages."It's a level of power projection within this region that we haven't seen yet," says Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa expert for the International Crisis Group."I think it raises the stakes quite a bit," he barrage of attacks on the war-time capital and humanitarian hub signals that the RSF is determined and able to carry on the fight despite significant territorial it has showcased the growth of advanced drone warfare in Africa. Drones have played an increasing role in the conflict, which has entered its third year. The war began as a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF and has drawn in other Sudanese armed groups and foreign backers, plunging the country into what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian aerial vehicles (UAVs) helped the army advance earlier this year. And the RSF escalated its own use of drones as it was pushed out of central Sudan, especially Khartoum, back towards its traditional stronghold in the west of the recent months the paramilitaries had stepped up drone strikes on critical civilian infrastructure in army-controlled areas, such as dams and power their sustained attacks on Port Sudan, until now seen as a safe haven home to government officials, diplomats and humanitarian organisations, underlined a shift in strategy to a greater emphasis on remote warfare, and aimed to demonstrate strength. "The RSF is trying to show that they don't need to reach Port Sudan by land in order to be able to have an impact there," says Sudanese political analyst Kholood group is trying to achieve a "narrative shift" away from "the triumphant SAF that took over Khartoum," she says."It is saying to the Sudanese Armed Forces: 'You can take Khartoum back, but you'll never be able to govern it. You can have Port Sudan, but you won't be able to govern it, because we will cause a security crisis for you so large that it will be ungovernable'... They want to unequivocally show that the war is not over until they say so."The paramilitary group has not directly addressed the Port Sudan drone attacks. Rather, it has repeated its assertion that the SAF is supported by Iran and accused the armed forces of targeting civilian infrastructure and state institutions, calling the military strikes on Khartoum and RSF-held areas in the west and south of the country war sides stand accused of war crimes which they have denied, but the RSF has been singled out over allegations of mass rape and change in its tactics may have been triggered by battlefield necessity, but is possible because of technological RSF had previously used what are known as suicide or loitering drones, small UAVs with explosive payloads that are designed to crash into targets and can carry out coordinated seems to have deployed this method in Port Sudan, with the commander of the Red Sea Military Zone Mahjoub Bushra describing a swarm of 11 Kamikaze drones in the first strike on a military airbase. He said the army shot them down, but they turned out to be a tactical distraction to divert attention from a single strategic drone that successfully struck the make of this drone is not clear. But satellite images reported by Yale researchers and the Reuters news agency have shown advanced UAVs at an airport in South Darfur since the beginning of the year. The defence intelligence company Janes has determined them to most likely be sophisticated Chinese manufactured CH-95s, capable of long-range Binnie, an Africa and Middle East analyst at Jane's, told the BBC that photos of what appear to be the remnants of the smaller kamikaze drones suggest they are probably a different version than the RSF had used before, and might be better at penetrating air defences because of their shape. One regional observer suggested the RSF had been able to breach the SAF's anti-drone technology with signal jammers attached to the drones, but cautioned this was still South Darfur airport in Nyala, the presumptive capital and military base of the Rapid Support Forces, has been repeatedly bombed by the SAF, which destroyed an aircraft there earlier this month. Some experts see the RSF's bombardment of Port Sudan at least partly as Khartoum, a city left in ruinsSudan war: A simple guide to what is happeningThe escalating drone warfare has again highlighted the role of foreign actors in Sudan's civil conflict."This is a war of technology," says Justin Lynch, managing director at Conflict Insights Group, a data analytics and research organisation. "That's why the foreign supporters are so important, because it's not like the RSF is making the weapons themselves. They're being given this stuff."The army has accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of supplying the paramilitary fighters with the drones, and cut diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi because of the UAE has strongly rejected the charges. It has long denied reports from UN experts, US politicians and international organisations that it is providing weaponry to the Mr Lynch says the evidence is overwhelming. He was the lead author of a US State Department-funded report late last year that concluded with "near certainty" the the UAE was facilitating weapons to the RSF by monitoring imagery and flight patterns of airlines previously implicated in violating a UN arms embargo. He told the BBC it would be surprising if the Emiratis were not helping deliver the drones used in the Port Sudan also determined with similar near-certainty that the Iranians were supplying weapons to the SAF, and he helped authenticate documents provided to the Washington Post that detail the sale of drones and warheads to the army by a Turkish defence has not responded to the allegations. Turkish officials have denied increasing use of drones by both sides may be redefining the war, but it is the ability of the RSF to strike strategic targets hundreds of kilometres from its positions that has rattled the a week of daily attacks on Port Sudan, the paramilitaries hit the country's only working international airport, a power station, several fuel depots, and the air base, apparently trying to disrupt the army's supply city is also the main entry port for relief supplies and the UN has warned that this "major escalation" could further complicate aid operations in the country and lead to large-scale civilian casualties."This was such a shock and awe campaign that it has not only stunned SAF, I think it's also stunned Egypt, Saudi Arabia, others who were behind SAF, and remakes the entire war," says Mr Boswell, adding that it closing the gap in air power between the RSF and the army."The RSF is widely viewed as a non-state actor," he says "and normally, groups like that can muster quite a bit of an insurgent force. But the government with the air force is the one that always has the aerial capacity, and this just turns all those old adages on its head." The development has triggered comparisons to the long-range drone warfare between Russia and Ukraine."These weapons have more precision, you don't need a manned aircraft any more, and they are much more affordable than operating sophisticated jets," says Mr Binnie. "This is part of a broader trend in technological proliferation where you can see what used to be really high-end capabilities being used in a civil war in sub-Saharan Africa."The Sudanese foreign ministry has warned that the attacks threaten regional security and the safety of navigation in the Red Sea, calling on international actors to take "effective action against the regional sponsor of the militia," a reference to the Lynch believes that only an agreement between the UAE and the Sudanese army will end the war."This war is always evolving, always changing," he says, "but you'll see it will continue for years and decades unless there is serious diplomatic action to stop it." More about Sudan's civil war from the BBC: WATCH: 'They ransacked my home, and left my town in ruins'The children living between starvation and deathBBC reporter: My heartbreaking decision to leave Sudan Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
