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Ukrainian nationals among evacuees airlifted from strife-riven Sudan by Russia, says envoy

The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier in a statement that over 200 citizens of Russia, other CIS countries and a number of friendly nations, evacuated from Sudan by a Russian Aerospace Forces emergency airlift operation, had arrived in Moscow

MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Ukrainian citizens numbered among the evacuees airlifted from turmoil-ridden Sudan by Russian Aerospace Forces’ aircraft, Russian Ambassador to Khartoum Andrey Chernovol told TASS on Tuesday.

"There are some Ukrainian citizens among them," he said in response to a question. "There were quite a lot of foreign nationals," the envoy added.

The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier in a statement that over 200 citizens of Russia, other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and a number of friendly nations, evacuated from Sudan by a Russian Aerospace Forces emergency airlift operation, had arrived in Moscow.

The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council. The main points of contention between the two military organizations pertain to the timeline and methods for unifying the armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should be appointed as commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is al-Burhan’s preferred option, or an elected civilian president, as Dagalo insists. On April 15, armed clashes between the rival military factions erupted near a military base in Merowe and in the capital, Khartoum. According to the Sudanese Health Ministry, several hundred people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out.