“Follow me and be careful,” says the commander, as he leads us down a narrow path in the dead of night.

The overgrown tract had once been occupied by the Russians, and there are landmines scattered on the side of the path.

But the men with us are more concerned about the threat from above.

Members of a unit in Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, they run a covert operation from an underground cellar, tucked behind a ruined farmhouse.

And what they are doing in this old vegetable store is pushing the boundaries of war.

“This is the interceptor called Sting,” says the commander, named Betsik, holding up a cylindrical device with four propellers.

“It’s an FPV [first-person view] quad, it’s very fast, it can go up to 280km. There’s 600 grams of explosive packed in the cap.”

However, he had not told us the most important thing about this bulbous drone.

“It can easily destroy a Shahed,” he says with determination.

Devastating and indiscriminate drone attacks

Once viewed as a low-cost curiosity, the Iranian-designed Shahed drone has turned into a collective menace.

As Russia’s principal long-range attack weapon, enemy forces have fired 44,228 Shaheds into Ukraine this year, with production expected to rise to 6,000 per month by early next year.

The Russians are also changing the way they use them, launching vast, coordinated waves at individual cities.

The damage can be devastating and indiscriminate. This year, more 460 civilians have been killed by these so-called kamikaze weapons.

Russia’s strategy is straightforward. By firing hundreds of Shaheds on a single night, they aim to overload Ukraine’s air defences.

It is something Betsik reluctantly accepts.

Still, his unit has come up with a groundbreaking way to tackle it.

Perched in the centre of the vegetable store, we watch a youthful drone pilot and a couple of navigators staring at a bank of screens.

“Guys, there’s a Shahed 10km away from us. Can we fly there?” asks one of the navigators, called Kombucha.

He had just spotted a Shahed on the radar, but the enemy projectile was just out of reach.

“Well, actually 18 km – it’s too far,” Kombucha says.

“Do you know where it is going?” I ask.

“Yes, Izyum, the city. Flying over Izyum, I hope it won’t hit the city itself.”

Kombucha takes a deep breath.

“It is driving me nuts when you can see it moving, but you can’t do anything about it.”

The chase

The atmosphere soon changes.

“Let’s go. Help me lift the antenna.”

An engineer runs an interceptor drone up to the unit’s ad-hoc launch pad, located on a pile of flattened brick.

“The bomb is armed.”

The drone pilot, called Ptaha, tightens his grip on the controller and launches the Sting into the night sky.

Now, they hunt the Shahed down.

Their radar screen gives them an idea of where to look – but not a precise location.

“Target dropped altitude.”

“How much?”

“360 metres. You’re at 700.”

Instead, they analyse images produced by the interceptor’s thermal camera. The heat from the Shahed’s engine should generate a white spec, or dot, on the horizon. Still, it is never easy to find.

“Zoom out. Zoom out,” mutters Ptaha.

Then, a navigator code-named Magic thrusts his arm at the right-hand corner of the screen.

“There, there, there, b****!”

“I see it,” replies Ptaha.

The pilot manoeuvres the interceptor behind the Russian drone and works to decrease the distance between the two.

The chase is on. We watch as he steers the interceptor into the back of Shahed.

“We hit it,” he shouts.

“Did you detonate?”

“That was a Shahed, that was a Shahed, not a Gerbera.”

Going in for the kill

The Russians have developed a family of drones based on the Shahed, including a decoy called the Gerbera, which is designed to overwhelm Ukrainian defences.

However, the 3rd Brigade tells us these Gerberas are now routinely packed with explosives.

“I can see you’ve developed a particular technique to take them all down,” I suggest to Ptaha. “You circle around and try to catch them from behind?”

“Yes, because if you fly towards it head-on, due to the fact that the speed of the Shahed…”

The pilot breaks off.

“Guys, target 204 here.”

It’s clear that a major Russian bombardment is under way.

“About five to six km,” shouts Magic.

With another target to chase, the unit fires an interceptor into the sky.

Ptaha stares at the interceptor’s thermal camera screen.

The lives of countless Ukrainians depend on this 21-year-old.

“There, I see it. I see it. I see it.”

The team pursues their target before Ptaha goes in for the kill.

“There’s going to be a boom!” says Magic excitedly.

“Closing in.”

On the monitor, the live feed from the drone is replaced by a sea of fuzzy grey.

“Hit confirmed.”

“Motherf*****!”

‘In a few months it will be possible to destroy most of them’

The Russians would launch more than 500 drones that night.

Betsik and his men destroyed five with their Sting interceptors and the commander seemed thrilled with the result.

“I’d rate it five out of five. Nice. Five launches, five targets destroyed. One hundred percent efficiency. I like that.”

Nevertheless, 71 long-range projectiles managed to slip through Ukraine’s air defences, despite efforts made to stop them.

The head of the air defence section in 3rd Brigade, Maxim Zaychenko, told us lessons were being learnt in this underground cellar that would have to be shared with the entire Ukrainian army.

“As the number of Shaheds has increased we’ve set ourselves the task of forming combat crews and acquiring the capabilities to intercept them… it’s a question of scaling combat crews with the right personnel and equipment along the whole contact line.”

Buoyed by the night’s successes, Betsik was optimistic.

“In a few months, like three to five, it will be possible to destroy most of them,” he said.

“You really think that?” I replied.

“This is the future, I am not dreaming about it, I know it will be.”

Photography by Katy Scholes.

Thousands who fled a key frontline city in Sudan’s war as it fell to paramilitaries were targeted in killing fields around it by the group, after the military’s top brass secured their own safe passage.

Warning: Some readers may find content in this article distressing.

More than 60,000 people are still missing and humanitarians fear that Al Fashir’s remaining 200,000 residents are being held hostage by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters.

In our investigation with Sudan War Monitor and Lighthouse Reports, we can reveal the harrowing fate of civilians and soldiers who fled the city in the hours after senior commanders and officers left the infantry division.

Some 70,000 people have escaped Al Fashir since it was captured on 26 October, according to the DTM matrix of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), but fewer than 10,000 people are accounted for in the nearest safe displacement zones.

In an effort to track down the missing, we analysed dozens of videos and followed crowds of civilians on their way out.

In this first video, we see a group, and two men – the first with a yellow hoodie and black jacket walking beside a dirt berm along with women and children.

In a later video, we see a crowd of captives that includes the two men – in the same yellow hoodie and red turban.

A video of men sitting on the ground under RSF armed guard shows the women walking through freely, showing they had been separated.

In another video, we see the man in a red turban in a queue of men who start to run as RSF fighters chase and beat them.

A source on the ground told us that this single group had around 2,000 captives and only 200 of them arrived at the nearest displacement shelter in Tawila, around 45 miles from Al Fashir.

We geolocated one of the videos of the group walking approximately 5km (three miles) from the nearby town of Geurnei.

There, hundreds were rounded up in school buildings.

‘They would execute people in front of us’

The families of doctors held there told Sky News the RSF asked them to pay ransoms to secure their release.

A man who survived captivity in Geurnei with his wife told us he was held with around 300-400 families after being robbed and harassed on his way out of Al Fashir.

“We got to the school and they caught up with us. They starting targeting people – elderly and young – and took them to be detained,” said Abdelhamid.

“They would select people and execute them in front of us and then say – ‘bury your brother’ – and we would cover them with soil. I saw them kill 18 people with my own eyes and then people had to bury them with their bare hands.”

Satellite images from 30 October show mounds of dirt that appear to be new graves added to an existing cemetery, near school buildings in Geurnei.

Read more:
UAE is ‘main backer’ behind Sudan war – intelligence officer
Tens of thousands killed in two days in Sudan city, analysts believe

Others were executed in the fields outside of Al Fashir.

In a video shared on social media, a vehicle is shown pursuing civilians in the countryside.

The driver films as two fighters, one in an RSF patch, stop an unarmed man.

One asks what the man is carrying, and shoots him at point-blank range.

The car continues forward, accelerating towards and narrowly avoiding two unarmed men.

He asks one man if he is carrying anything and says he is “acting as if you are Arab”.

After the driver says “kill them all”, the camera turns back to the man, who appears to have been shot.

The driver then urges those with him to hurry to catch up with those ahead.

This brutality comes after the RSF encircled, starved and shelled Al Fashir for 18 months in their battle with the military for the last regional capital in Darfur under state control.

Several high-level sources told us that top state commanders, officers and political leaders made arrangements for their own safe passage in over 100 vehicles, including some armoured cars, before the 6th infantry division was captured by the RSF in the morning hours of 26 October.

What does the head of the SAF say?

The commander in chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Abdel Fattah Al Burhan has said the withdrawal was to spare the city from further destruction, indiscriminate shelling and drone attacks.

In response to our findings, he told Sky News: “The decision to withdraw was unanimous among the armed forces, regular forces, and the joint security committee.

“The withdrawal began with an attack by drones on forces blocking one of the crossings, destroying their positions.

“Later, the forces fought until they broke through the barrier and moved to a location outside the city.

“During the withdrawal, the forces lost more than 300 martyrs, and most of their vehicles were destroyed. They remain besieged.

“They did not leave soldiers behind. Those who remained were tasked with securing the withdrawal, and they performed their duty as required.”

But instead of a co-ordinated withdrawal, a soldier left behind describes an abandoned command.

‘They completely abandoned us’

“The division commander had left the garrison. They completely abandoned us and we were suddenly surrounded 26 to 1 in the morning hours. Suddenly, everything collapsed on us in the defence. We asked what was going on and were told everyone fled,” he said.

“Shortly after, bombs started falling on us. Brigadier General Adam, the artillery commander, refused to withdraw, saying that the division commander had already withdrawn without informing him of the order. The brigadier general, six colonels, and a naval colonel were also captured.”

Testimony from a civilian who fled that morning paints a picture of chaos.

He said: “There was no co-ordination over withdrawal, and it seemed to be a surprise to the remaining fighters on the frontline. Some were leaving the city and others were fighting battles with the RSF.”

As the RSF entered Al Fashir, he told us civilians were massacred.

“The streets were covered in bodies. I saw it for myself. The RSF came into the city and butchered everyone they found. They did not discern between a child, a civilian or the elderly – they executed everyone, a full genocide.”

High-resolution satellite imagery captured by Vantor shows burnt vehicles grouped together south of the berm the RSF built to besiege Al Fashir.

A video we located at the site shows dozens of bodies, in fatigues and civilian clothing, lying lifeless on the ground by burning cars.

Mounting concern over 200,000 people

Fears are mounting over the fate of around 200,000 people left in Al Fashir.

A top RSF commander with knowledge of the operations in the city told us that at least 7,000 people have been killed in Al Fashir in the first five days of capture.

He said RSF fighters systemically targeted civilians from non-Arab tribes and killed groups of 300 to 400 people in some areas. Civilian sources close to the RSF corroborated his death toll, which we cannot independently verify on the ground.

Al Fashir is in a complete telecommunications blackout.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Sudan has shared in a post on X that their “Humanitarian partners in Sudan are being blocked from reaching A Fashir, North Darfur.

“Civilians are trapped inside, their condition unknown. Aid workers are ready to deliver life-saving support. Access needs to be granted now, in line with international humanitarian law.”

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The RSF has circulated videos on its social media channels showing trucks delivering aid to Al Fashir’s emaciated civilians.

This comes after months of volunteers and aid workers being killed by RSF fighters while trying to bring in relief during their 18-month siege of enforced starvation and relentless shelling.

What does the RSF say?

The spokesperson for the RSF’s political administration TASIS, Dr Alaa Nugud, told Sky News that the RSF there is a big fake media campaign prepared for the “Al Fashir liberation” and denounced the death toll of at least 7,000, shared by one of their top commanders, as “totally rubbish”.

In response to our report, he said: “Never happened that TASIS forces or any of its constituents killed civilians based on ethnic background, on the other hand this is what was done by SAF and the Muslim brotherhood National Congress Party doctrine during their 39 years of rule.

“SAF’s military intelligence was igniting these ethnic clashes throughout years they used religion to flame war in south Sudan and used racism and ethnicity to ignite war in Darfur.”

He added that “RSF and TASIS forces evacuated more than 800,000 civilians outside Al Fashir”.

“Could they not provide or grant safe passage to civilians? The reality is that the insurance of the continuation of the war and spoiling of all peace platforms… the continuation of this war is the main cause of all atrocities.

“The atrocities are consequences of this war, not the cause of the war. So to stop all these atrocities we have to stop the war and this is not there in SAF agenda.”

The RSF is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity across Sudan since the war started in April 2023.

The Biden administration accused the RSF of committing genocide in Darfur in 2024, two decades after the group was first accused of genocide in the region as the Janjaweed.

Our previous reporting on Sky News has supported allegations that the UAE militarily supports the RSF, though the country officially denies it.

Additional reporting by Mohamed Zakarea, Sam Doak, Annoa Abekah-Mensah, Aziz Al Nour, Julia Steers, Jack Sapoch, and Klaas van Dijken.

This story was a joint Sky News data and forensics investigation with Sudan War Monitor and Lighthouse Reports.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Israel’s former top military lawyer has been arrested after admitting leaking a video of soldiers allegedly abusing a Palestinian prisoner.

The growing scandal comes as Israel handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza.

An Israeli official said ex-military advocate Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was taken into custody overnight on Sunday – just a few days after resigning from her post, reported the Associated Press news agency.

She was arrested when a search was carried out along the Tel Aviv beach after concerns for her safety were raised by her family, reported Israel’s Channel 12.

Former chief military prosecutor Colonel Matan Solomesh was also arrested overnight as part of the investigation into the leaked video, reported Israel’s Army Radio.

The leaked footage was aired last year purporting to show an incident involving soldiers and a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel.

The developments came as the bodies of the Palestinians were received at Nasser Hospital, in Gaza, on Monday morning, a Gaza health ministry spokesperson told the Associated Press.

The release of the bodies came a day after Israel said Hamas had handed over the remains of three Israeli troops taken hostage on 7 October 2023.

Israel said the troops were killed in the attack on southern Israel before their bodies were dragged by militants back to Gaza.

A Hamas statement said the remains were found on Sunday in a tunnel in southern Gaza.

The three troops have been identified as Captain Omer Neutra, an American-Israeli, Staff Sergeant Oz Daniel and Colonel Assaf Hamami, according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since the ceasefire started on 10 October, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 20 hostages, with eight now remaining in Gaza.

Hamas has released one or two bodies every few days.

Israel has demanded faster progress and, in some cases, has said the remains were not those of any hostage.

Hamas has said the work to return the bodies has been complicated by the widespread devastation in Gaza.

Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians for each hostage returned.

Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify bodies without access to DNA kits.

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Only 75 of the 225 Palestinian bodies returned since the ceasefire began have been identified, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped in the Hamas terror attack that sparked the war two years ago.

Officials in Hamas-run Gaza say more than 68,600 Palestinians have died.