Toward the end of 2021, according to a senior European official, Putin was weighing whether to launch his full-scale invasion when he met with the head of one of Russia’s main spy services, who told him that the CIA, together with Britain’s MI6, were controlling Ukraine and turning it into a beachhead for operations against Moscow.
But the Times investigation found that Putin and his advisers misread a critical dynamic. The CIA didn’t push its way into Ukraine. U.S. officials were often reluctant to fully engage, fearing that Ukrainian officials could not be trusted, and worrying about provoking the Kremlin.
Yet a tight circle of Ukrainian intelligence officials assiduously courted the CIA and gradually made themselves vital to the Americans.
The imperial frontier state drew us in! We didn’t want to control them, they asked us to!
The agency agreed to help the HUR [Ukrainian military intelligence] modernize, and to improve its ability to intercept Russian military communications. In exchange, Kondratiuk agreed to share all of the raw intelligence with the Americans.
how are you not just literally a branch office of the CIA at that point
CIA officers installed equipment at the bases to help gather intelligence and also identified some of the most skilled Ukrainian graduates of the Operation Goldfish program, working with them to approach potential Russian sources. These graduates then trained sleeper agents on Ukrainian territory meant to launch guerrilla operations in case of occupation.
Arming, training, and funding ultranationalist terrorists? Nooooo noooo you have it all wrong, these are simple staybehind operations in case of occupation. They are made of peaceful freedom-loving people who are also willing to risk being tortured to death if given the chance to kill random russians. Moderate rebels, you could say.
The imperial frontier state drew us in! We didn’t want to control them, they asked us to!
Man this article has a lot of great stuff.
how are you not just literally a branch office of the CIA at that point
Arming, training, and funding ultranationalist terrorists? Nooooo noooo you have it all wrong, these are simple staybehind operations in case of occupation. They are made of peaceful freedom-loving people who are also willing to risk being tortured to death if given the chance to kill random russians. Moderate rebels, you could say.
Damn even their acronyms sound German
It literally means removed in german slang