Read Part 1 Here.

To demonstrate to those perpetuating the Putin regime's reign of terror and destruction that there is no place in the world where they may hide; to demonstrate to the free world that where one great democracy stumbles, others may find their footing and rise in its place; Ukraine must turn those cuts in the Putin war machine into hemorrhages.

It must eliminate the targets that are concurrently significant and valuable to both Ukraine's operational and political objectives.

Russian gold or weapons convoys in Sudan taken out by Ukrainian special operators are not such targets-they are symbolic victories-but they are not going to pierce the Kremlin's enablers deep enough to bleed them out.  

Within Africa, as the remnants of Russia's Wagner Group are being absorbed into the newly established Africa Corps - or the Russian "Expeditionary Corps"-Ukraine has targets of far more strategic value that it should be putting in its crosshairs.

Wagner's New Look

The new head of the now rebranded Wagner mercenaries, General Andrey Averyanov, was the former commander of Unit 29155, a Russian military intelligence unit specializing in targeted assassinations and the destabilization of foreign governments. Averyanov, who is suspected by Western intelligence agencies of playing a role in the death of former Wagner Group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is one of those Putin regime enablers. He is also now a vital link in sustaining the Kremlin's plunder of Africa's natural resources, and by extension, the Russian war in Ukraine. 

In Sudan, other such enablers are the leader of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo "Hemedti," and the deputy head of the RSF, his brother, Abdelrahim Dagalo. The Dagalo brothers, who in addition to their operation of what has become one of the most powerful armed nonstate actors in North Africa, manage the family firm, Al Gunade-through which billions of dollars in gold shipments have flowed to circumvent Western sanctions. The Hemedtis' gold has not only shored up Russia's financial woes and sustained the Kremlin's war in Ukraine, but it's also purchased weapons and equipment for the RSF that are currently being used against Sudan's military.

If Ukraine was to target Averyanov and one or both of the Dagalo brothers in Africa, however, such liquidations would achieve the operational objective of disrupting some of the critical resources to the Russian war effort. It would likewise achieve the political objective of sending the message that anyone complicit in Putin's campaign of terror will be hunted down and made to pay a terrible price wherever they might be. And not for nothing, Ukraine's permanent removal of a couple of the world's worst genocidaires from the scene of their ongoing crimes against humanity would also send a message. 

What's Next?

As stated by a former Ukrainian intelligence officer to the Economist in September 2023 regarding the targeted killings of such terrorists, "We needed to bring war to them." Ukrainian military-intelligence spokesman, Andriy Yusov, clarified this objective as one designed "not to frighten the enemy," but "to force it from occupied Ukrainian lands." To bring the war to Russia in Sudan-and in Africa-Ukraine must target the supply of African gold, diamonds, and other resources funding the Kremlin's war machine. And to do that, it must target those at the root of the demand for those resources.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has inspired his country and the Western world with his resolve and defiance in the face of Russian aggression, already has the tools at his disposal. And like another resolute wartime leader from Kyiv, former prime minister of Israel Golda Meir, Zelensky has authorized the use of "hit squads" against enemy forces and collaborators targeting his people. 

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