Sudan: How elite team of British troops evacuated UK diplomats from warzone capital
The covert mission to evacuate British diplomats and their families from Sudan’s warzone capital began under the cover of darkness.
A team of elite British troops flew into Khartoum late on Saturday night on board an American military aircraft that was part of a separate but coordinated US evacuation mission.
Upon landing, the British soldiers left their American counterparts, acquired a number of local vehicles and drove across the city towards where the UK embassy is located.
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British nationals ‘remain a top priority’
Sudan latest: ‘We need to get out’ – British nationals make rescue plea
The British mission and its diplomats are in an area of Khartoum that sits between Sudan‘s two warring factions, making their extraction particularly perilous.
During the day on Saturday, those who were due to be rescued had gathered themselves together.
It was thought to be around two dozen British diplomats plus family members as well as a handful of officials from other nations that Britain had offered to help.
The troops met with the evacuation party of around 30 people, including children, and prepared for the extraction.
They had to assess the situation on the ground – the scene of deadly fighting for the past week and a half – and work out if it was safe enough to bring them out without more back-up.
In tandem with this first leg of the mission, two Royal Air Force transport planes – a C-130 Hercules and an A400M Airbus – had taken off from RAF Akrotiri, a sprawling British military base in Cyprus.
The aircraft, operating in coordination with the French and US armed forces and with permission from the Sudanese military, landed on a Sudanese airfield called Wadi Seidna which is about 30km north of Khartoum, at around 1am on Sunday morning, UK time.
This was about an hour and a half after the US aircraft – carrying the initial team of elite British soldiers – had landed in Khartoum.
The potentially most hazardous stage in the UK rescue mission came next.
The elite team of British soldiers with the diplomats had to travel from their assembly point in Khartoum to the airfield – a journey of about 30km (18 miles), through multiple checkpoints.
Smoke rises over Khartoum
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If heavy fighting was taking place, UK defence planners had been ready to send in more aircraft and troops, with the ability to “punch through” the checkpoints and reach the diplomats.
In that event, the soldiers with them would have been tasked with protecting the diplomats from the fighting until help came, rather than driving them out.
In the event, however, a window opened of relative calm to allow the soldiers on the ground to drive their passengers to the airfield.
A unit of troops from the two aircraft, which brought in military vehicles as well for the operation, also mobilised and moved towards the initial rescue team to assist.
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It was not immediately clear if the British troops encountered any gunfire or shelling.
Once at the airfield, the diplomats and families boarded the aircraft and the two British planes took off at around 9am, UK time, and headed back to Cyprus.
It is thought the aircraft had been on the ground for about seven to eight hours.
British nationals, or those with UK passports, can tell the government if they are trapped in Sudan by using this form.
World
Biden adding ‘fuel to fire’, Kremlin says – as Ukraine allowed to fire US missiles into Russia
The Kremlin has criticised President Joe Biden for adding “fuel to the fire” after giving Ukraine permission to launch US missiles into Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to… continue adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict.”
Russia‘s Foreign Ministry added that the action by Mr Biden‘s administration would fundamentally alter the nature of the war and trigger “an adequate and tangible” response.
The UK has refused to reveal if it plans to follow suit, for example extending the use of British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles by Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia.
Follow latest: Ukraine war live updates
Britain’s Defence Secretary John Healey told the House of Commons commenting would “compromise operations and security”, adding that he will speak with the US and Ukrainian defence secretaries on Monday evening.
At the G20 Summit in Brazil, Sir Keir Starmer gave a similar response: “I’m not going to get into operational details because the only winner, if we were to do that, is [Vladimir] Putin, and I’m not prepared to do that.”
For over a year Ukraine has been calling on America changes its policy on the use of long-range missiles.
Joe Biden attends the G20 Summit. Pic: AP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given a muted response to Mr Biden’s decision to expand the use of the American-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
“Strikes are not made with words… the missiles will speak for themselves,” he said.
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‘The missiles will speak for themselves’
Biden risks triggering ‘World War Three’
The US has eased restrictions on the use of ATACMS, which has a range of up to 190 miles, after Russia began deploying North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces in the conflict.
Donald Trump Jr, the son of president-elect Donald Trump, suggested in a post on X that Mr Biden was risking a third world war “before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives”.
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The use of tactical missile systems for Ukraine
Hungary: Policy is ‘astonishingly dangerous’
There has been a strong, but mixed, reaction across Europe to America’s change of policy.
Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said the decision was “astonishingly dangerous” – although the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has a close and often sympathetic relationship with Moscow.
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Why has US let Ukraine use its missiles?
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Slovakia’s leader Robert Fico, who has also fostered a stronger relationship with his Russian counterpart, said it was an “unprecedented escalation of tensions” and “a decision that thwarts hopes for the start of any peace talks”.
But other countries have been more positive.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said: “This decision was very necessary… Russia sees that Ukraine enjoys strong support and that the West’s position is unyielding and determined.”
Meanwhile, Estonia’s foreign minister Margus Tsahkna was equally positive. He said easing restrictions on Ukraine was “a good thing”, adding: “We have been saying that from the beginning – that no restrictions must be put on the military support [for Ukraine].”
Missiles are ‘not a game changer’
Former British ambassador to Russia Sir Toby Brenton has told Sky News: “Nobody is really expecting this to be a game changer.
“They’re expecting it to make life more difficult for the Russians, slow the Russian advance down, but… from all the stories I’m hearing, there are not actually that many of these missiles available to be used.”
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A Russian missile strike on Odesa killed 10 people on Monday. Pic: Ukrainian Emergency Services/Reuters
A residential building damaged by a Russian missile strike in Sumy. Pic: Reuters
On Monday, a Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions killed 11 people in a residential area of Sumy in northern Ukraine.
Another missile barrage sparked apartment fires in the southern port of Odesa, killing at least 10 people, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Tuesday marks 1,000 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Barely anyone speaks – there is virtual silence apart from the sounds of passing vehicles and the wind whipping through flags and photographs commemorating the dead in a war that started 1,000 days ago when Russia invaded.
What is really striking is the sheer number of people who have died, and this memorial in Kyiv’s Maidan Square represents just some of those who gave their lives defending their country.
Soldiers in camouflage fatigues pause to pay their respects to comrades, civilians stop and stare, heads often bowed.
At the same time, on mobile phones, news alerts announce another missile strike on Ukraine. This time in the port city of Odessa.
More dead, more injured, it never stops here.
As this war grinds on, with Russia making significant gains in the east, it says something about the Ukrainian people’s resolve to keep going.
For months the Ukrainian government has been pleading with the United States and its western partners for permission to use long range weapons to attack deep inside Russia.
A ruined building in Odessa
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These weapons would allow Ukraine to target airfields and bases where drones and missiles are launched against Ukraine, and to attack supply routes and military camps. In effect – to take the fight to Russia.
Time and again civilians and soldiers alike tell me the West and the United States are scared of annoying or provoking Russia. Wrongly or rightly, most believe the West is happy for Ukraine to hold the line but not beat Russia.
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Ukraine allowed to use US long-range missiles in Russia
News that President Biden, in the twilight of his time in office, has changed his position allowing American missiles to be fired into Russia, has been greeted with euphoria.
Although it’s tempered by his decision to allow them to be used only in the Kursk region of Russia, where North Korean troops are augmenting the Russian military.
MP Lesia Vasylenko
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I met Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko in the capital, she heard the news as she arrived back in Ukraine from a trip abroad.
She says the decision has “lifted spirits here” and calls the move “extremely significant” but says it needs to go further.
“As members of parliament we have been echoing the president in every single meeting we have abroad, asking for the permission to strike inside Russia’s territory, what this means is permission to liquidate 16 airbases from which Russia on a daily and nightly bases sends airplanes carrying missiles that are hitting Ukrainian homes, Ukrainian infrastructure, and basically making civilian life impossible in the country,” she told me.
She continued: “Having permission to strike inside of all of Russia would really change things round for the people of Ukraine first and foremost, but also on the battlefield.”
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She told me that despite the war dragging on, the Ukrainian people remain resolute and united.
“The resilience is still there, for us this resilience equals survival, if Ukraine stops fighting there will be no Ukraine, there will be no us as Ukrainians, there will be no housing, we would not be allowed to live under the Ukrainian flag, so the only option here is to make sure that Russia stops fighting and that Russia can never fight again.”
Over the past almost two weeks I have driven from the west to the east of this huge country.
It strikes me that you can barely pass a town or a village cemetery without the blue and gold colours of the Ukrainian flag punctuating the grey skies – marking the graves of the war dead.
Flags mark the graves of Ukraine’s war dead across the country
A thousand days since the Russian invasion began, soldiers and civilians alike are still dying, but Ukraine is still fighting.
A thousand days ago, few thought that was likely.
An undersea fibre optic cable between Germany and Finland has stopped working and might have been deliberately cut by an unknown party, according to authorities.
The 729 mile (1,173km) C-Lion1 cable under the Baltic Sea from Helsinki to Rostock went offline just after 2am GMT on Monday.
The outage was reported by Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms company Cinia.
A physical inspection has not yet been done but the abrupt nature suggests it was completely severed by an outside force, said chief executive Ari-Jussi Knaapila.
Germany and Finland‘s foreign ministers said they were “deeply concerned” and it “immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage”.
A joint statement said: “Our European security is not only under threat from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.
“Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.”
Cinia said “corrective measures” were under way and a repair ship was being prepared.
The damage to the fibre optic cable could take around five to 15 days to fix, Mr Knaapila told reporters.
The pipe runs under the Baltic Sea between Helsinki and Rostock
He said the damage occurred near the southern tip of Sweden’s Oland island and that Cinia was working with authorities to investigate.
The cable links central European telecoms networks to Finland, other Nordic countries and Asia.
A Chinese ship was blamed for damaging another cable, the Balticconnector gas pipeline, last year. Pic: Finnish Border Guard/Reuters
Another submerged gas line and several telecoms cables were seriously damaged last year in the Baltic Sea.
A Chinese container ship dragging its anchor was named as prime suspect by Finnish police. However, they have not said if they think the damage was intentional.
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Two years ago, a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany – the Nord Steam – was also damaged by explosions.
Many suspected Moscow of foul play but German authorities are still investigating the case.
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