Das Gute an einem nicht proxy Krieg ist

25. Oktober 2023

- dass einen die CIA bei tar­ge­ted kil­lings recht umfäng­lich unter­stützt. So umfäng­lich, dass man es wie­der ver­ges­sen hat zuvor bekannt zu geben.

The CIA was unavail­ab­le for comments.

Washing­ton Post reporting.

Ukrai­ni­an spies with deep ties to CIA wage shadow war against Russia

[…]

The mis­si­ons have invol­ved eli­te teams of Ukrai­ni­an ope­ra­ti­ves drawn from direc­to­ra­tes that were for­med, trai­ned and equip­ped in clo­se part­ners­hip with the CIA, accord­ing to cur­rent and for­mer Ukrai­ni­an and U.S. offi­cials. Sin­ce 2015, the CIA has spent tens of mil­li­ons of dol­lars to trans­form Ukraine’s Soviet-formed ser­vices into potent allies against Moscow, offi­cials said. The agen­cy has pro­vi­ded Ukrai­ne with advan­ced sur­veil­lan­ce sys­tems, trai­ned recruits at sites in Ukrai­ne as well as the United Sta­tes, built new head­quar­ters for depart­ments in Ukraine’s mili­ta­ry intel­li­gence agen­cy, and shared intel­li­gence on a sca­le that would have been uni­ma­gin­ab­le befo­re Rus­sia ille­gal­ly anne­xed Cri­mea and fomen­ted a sepa­ra­tist war in eas­tern Ukrai­ne. The CIA main­tains a signi­fi­cant pre­sence in Kyiv, offi­cials said.

The extent of the CIA’s invol­ve­ment with Ukraine’s secu­ri­ty ser­vices has not pre­vious­ly been dis­c­lo­sed. U.S. intel­li­gence offi­cials stres­sed that the agen­cy has had no invol­ve­ment in tar­ge­ted kil­ling ope­ra­ti­ons by Ukrai­ni­an agen­ci­es, and that its work has focu­sed on bols­te­ring tho­se ser­vices’ abi­li­ties to gather intel­li­gence on a dan­ge­rous advers­a­ry. A seni­or intel­li­gence offi­cial said that “any poten­ti­al ope­ra­tio­nal con­cerns have been con­vey­ed clear­ly to the Ukrai­ni­an services.” 

Sie sehen hier: Kei­nen US Pro­xy Krieg.

Many of Ukraine’s clan­des­ti­ne ope­ra­ti­ons have had clear mili­ta­ry objec­ti­ves and con­tri­bu­t­ed to the country’s defen­se. The car bom­bing that kil­led Daria Dug­i­na, howe­ver, unders­cored Ukraine’s embrace of what offi­cials in Kyiv refer to as “liqui­da­ti­ons” as a wea­pon of war. Over the past 20 mon­ths, the SBU and its mili­ta­ry coun­ter­part, the GUR, have car­ri­ed out dozens of assas­si­na­ti­ons against Rus­si­an offi­cials in occu­p­ied ter­ri­to­ries, alle­ged Ukrai­ni­an col­la­bo­ra­tors, mili­ta­ry offi­cers behind the front lines and pro­mi­nent war sup­por­ters deep insi­de Rus­sia. Tho­se kil­led inclu­de a for­mer Rus­si­an sub­ma­ri­ne com­man­der jog­ging in a park in the sou­thern Rus­si­an city of Krasno­dar and a mili­tant blog­ger at a cafe in St. Peters­burg, accord­ing to Ukrai­ni­an and Wes­tern officials.

Ukraine’s affi­ni­ty for let­hal ope­ra­ti­ons has com­pli­ca­ted its col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with the CIA, rai­sing con­cerns about agen­cy com­pli­ci­ty and crea­ting une­a­se among some offi­cials in Kyiv and Washington.

Sie sehen hier: Gra­ve con­cerns on part of the CIA.

Even tho­se who see such let­hal mis­si­ons as defen­si­ble in war­ti­me ques­ti­on the uti­li­ty of cer­tain strikes and decisi­ons that led to the tar­ge­ting of civi­li­ans inclu­ding Dug­i­na or her father, Alex­an­der Dugin — who offi­cials ack­now­ledge was the inten­ded mark — rather than Rus­si­ans more direct­ly lin­ked to the war.

We have too many enemies who are more important to neu­tra­li­ze,” said a high-ranking Ukrai­ne secu­ri­ty offi­cial. “Peop­le who launch mis­si­les. Peop­le who com­mit­ted atro­ci­ties in Bucha.” Kil­ling the daugh­ter of a pro-war fire­brand is “very cyni­cal,” the offi­cial said.

Others cited broa­der con­cerns about Ukraine’s cut­throat tac­tics that may seem jus­ti­fied now — espe­cial­ly against a coun­try accu­sed of widespread war atro­ci­ties — but could later pro­ve dif­fi­cult to rein in.

Das Gute an den Beden­ken der CIA ist aber, dass sie mehr so zukunfts­ori­en­tiert sind. Ok, wir töten schon mal Kin­der von Zie­len, wenn wir an die Zie­le nicht dran kom­men, oder Blog­ger mit Reich­wei­te - das ist schon sehr zynisch, aber zum Pro­blem wirds erst, wenn wir uns den­ken - wie bekom­men wir da den Geist wie­der in die Fla­sche?! Also zukünftig?

We are see­ing the birth of a set of intel­li­gence ser­vices that are like Mos­sad in the 1970s,” said a for­mer seni­or CIA offi­cial, refer­ring to the Israe­li spy ser­vice long accu­sed of car­ry­ing out assas­si­na­ti­ons in other coun­tries. Ukraine’s pro­fi­ci­en­cy at such ope­ra­ti­ons “has risks for Rus­sia,” the offi­cial said, “but it car­ri­es broa­der risks as well.”

If Ukraine’s intel­li­gence ope­ra­ti­ons beco­me even bol­der — tar­ge­ting Rus­si­ans in third coun­tries, for examp­le — you could ima­gi­ne how that might cau­se rifts with part­ners and come into serious ten­si­on with Ukraine’s broa­der stra­te­gic goals,” the offi­cial said. Among tho­se goals is mem­bers­hip in NATO and the Euro­pean Union.

Gut, Pro­xy Krieg ist das natür­lich kei­ner, wir machen uns aber Gedan­ken um den Nato Mos­sad sei­ne Kill Ope­ra­ti­ons in Dritt­län­dern, vor allem wenn die EU dabei zusieht.

SBU and GUR offi­cials descri­be their expan­ding ope­ra­tio­nal roles as the result of extra­or­di­na­ry cir­cum­s­tan­ces. “All tar­gets hit by the SBU are com­ple­te­ly legal,” the agency’s direc­tor, Vasyl Malyuk, said in a state­ment pro­vi­ded to The Post. The state­ment did not spe­ci­fi­cal­ly address tar­ge­ted kil­lings but Malyuk, who met with top CIA and other U.S. offi­cials in Washing­ton last mon­th, said Ukrai­ne “does ever­ything to ensu­re that fair punish­ment will ‘catch up’ with all trai­tors, war cri­mi­nals and collaborators.”

Das gute dar­an ist aber, dass alle unse­re geziel­ten Tötun­gen kom­plett legal sind! Weil wir die Regeln schrei­ben. Oder irgend ein emo­tio­na­ler “catching up with the trai­tors” BS, den wir sonst als Begrün­dung erfin­den können.

Cur­rent and for­mer U.S. and Ukrai­ni­an offi­cials said both sides have sought to main­tain a care­ful distance bet­ween the CIA and the let­hal ope­ra­ti­ons car­ri­ed out by its part­ners in Kyiv. CIA offi­cials have voi­ced objec­tions after some ope­ra­ti­ons, offi­cials said, but the agen­cy has not with­drawn support.

Ah.

Gut, die non deni­al deni­als der Ukrai­ne sind dies­mal wirk­lich erstklassig.

We never invol­ved our inter­na­tio­nal part­ners in covert ope­ra­ti­ons, espe­cial­ly behind the front lines,” a for­mer seni­or Ukrai­ni­an secu­ri­ty offi­cial said. SBU and GUR ope­ra­ti­ves were not accom­pa­nied by CIA coun­ter­parts. Ukrai­ne avoided using wea­pons or equip­ment that could be traced to U.S. sources, and even covert fun­ding streams were segregated.

Also wir haben unse­re inter­na­tio­na­len Part­ner nie in unse­re ver­deck­ten Ope­ra­tio­nen mit­ein­be­zo­gen. Vor allem nicht in die hin­ter den Frontlinien.

Na was jetzt? Nicht oder doch schon “qua­li­fi­zier­tes kaum”?

Die Non deni­al deni­als der US Sei­te sind aber auch wunderbar.

We had a lot of restric­tions about working with the Ukrai­ni­ans ope­ra­tio­nal­ly,” said a for­mer U.S. intel­li­gence offi­cial. The empha­sis was “more on secu­re com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and tra­de­craft,” and pur­suing new streams of intel­li­gence insi­de Rus­sia “rather than ‘here’s how you blow up a mayor.’ I never got the sen­se that we were that invol­ved in designing their ops.”

Also ich hat­te nie das Gefühl, dass wir deren Ope­ra­tio­nen geplant haben! Mosk­va. Gesundheit.

Even so, offi­cials ack­now­led­ged that bounda­ries were occa­sio­nal­ly blur­red. CIA offi­cers in Kyiv were made awa­re of some of Ukraine’s more ambi­tious plans for strikes. In some cases, inclu­ding the bom­bing of the Kerch Bridge, U.S. offi­cials regis­tered concerns. 

Hey, das glaub ich sogar. 🙂

Ukraine’s spies deve­lo­ped their own lines about which ope­ra­ti­ons to dis­cuss and which to keep under wraps. “The­re were some things that may­be we wouldn’t talk about” with CIA coun­ter­parts, said a second Ukrai­ne secu­ri­ty offi­cial invol­ved in such mis­si­ons. He said cros­sing tho­se bounda­ries would lead to a ter­se reply from Ame­ri­cans: “We don’t want any part of that.”

Genau, und des­halb gibt es ja auch Din­ge bei denen wir plau­si­ble denia­bi­li­ty behaup­ten würden!

Und jetzt Zucker:

The CIA-Ukraine col­la­bo­ra­ti­on took root in the after­math of 2014 poli­ti­cal pro­tests that promp­ted Ukraine’s pro-Russian Pre­si­dent Vik­tor Yanu­ko­vych to flee the coun­try, fol­lo­wed by Russia’s annex­a­ti­on of Cri­mea and its arming of sepa­ra­tists in the eas­tern regi­ons of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Die CIA Zusam­men­ar­beit star­te­te nach der CIA Unter­stüt­zung poli­ti­scher Pro­tes­te? Ver­zei­hung Con­gress Unter­stüt­zung, US Con­gress Unterstützung.

Ja - aber nur sehr zöger­lich, in dem wir den Ukrai­ni­schen Geheim­dienst umstruk­tu­riert haben. Wait, what?!

The initi­al pha­ses of coope­ra­ti­on were ten­ta­ti­ve, offi­cials said, given con­cerns on both sides that Ukraine’s ser­vices were still hea­vi­ly pene­tra­ted by the FSB — the Rus­si­an agen­cy that is the main suc­ces­sor to the KGB. To mana­ge that secu­ri­ty risk, the CIA worked with the SBU to crea­te an ent­i­re­ly new direc­to­ra­te, offi­cials said, one that would focus on so-called “acti­ve mea­su­res” ope­ra­ti­ons against Rus­sia and be insu­la­ted from other SBU departments.

The new unit was pro­sai­cal­ly dub­bed the “Fifth Direc­to­ra­te” to dis­tin­guish it from the four long-standing units of the SBU. A sixth direc­to­ra­te has sin­ce been added, offi­cials said, to work with Britain’s MI6 spy agency.

Gut, der Ukrai­ni­sche Geheim­dienst hat jetzt eine US geführ­te Abtei­lung, und eine MI6 Abtei­lung, aber Pro­xy Krieg wür­den wir das noch nicht nennen.

Trai­ning sites were loca­ted out­side Kyiv whe­re hand­pi­cked recruits were inst­ruc­ted by CIA per­son­nel, offi­cials said. The plan was to form units “capa­ble of ope­ra­ting behind front lines and working as covert groups,” said a Ukrai­ni­an offi­cial invol­ved in the effort.

Und wir haben ja auch nie mit US Geheim­diens­ten zusam­men­ge­ar­bei­tet, wenn es dar­um ging Ope­ra­tio­nen hin­ter feind­li­chen Lini­en zu pla­nen. Gut, aus­ge­bil­det haben wir die­se Ein­hei­ten für die­sen Zweck natür­lich schon… Also wir - die CIA.

The agen­cy pro­vi­ded secu­re com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons gear, eaves­drop­ping equip­ment that allo­wed Ukrai­ne to inter­cept Rus­si­an pho­ne calls and emails, and even fur­nis­hed dis­gui­ses and sepa­ra­tist uni­forms enab­ling ope­ra­ti­ves to more easi­ly slip into occu­p­ied towns.

The ear­ly mis­si­ons focu­sed on recrui­t­ing infor­mants among Russia’s pro­xy for­ces as well as cyber and elec­tro­nic eaves­drop­ping mea­su­res, offi­cials said. The SBU also began moun­ting sabo­ta­ge ope­ra­ti­ons and mis­si­ons to cap­tu­re sepa­ra­tist lea­ders and Ukrai­ni­an col­la­bo­ra­tors, some of whom were taken to secret detenti­on sites.

But the ope­ra­ti­ons soon took a let­hal turn.

Komm, so ein klei­ner über­schwäng­li­cher Ausrutscher…

Over one three-year stretch, at least half a dozen Rus­si­an ope­ra­ti­ves, high-ranking sepa­ra­tist com­man­ders or col­la­bo­ra­tors were kil­led in vio­lence that was often attri­bu­t­ed to inter­nal score-settling but in rea­li­ty was the work of the SBU, Ukrai­ne offi­cials said.

Wie bereits gesagt, so ein klei­ner über­schwäng­li­cher Ausrutscher…

Among tho­se kil­led was Yev­ge­ny Zhi­lin, the lea­der of a pro-Russian mili­tant group in eas­tern Ukrai­ne, who was gun­ned down in 2016 in a Moscow restaurant.

In Mos­kau, in einem Restau­rant in 2016…

A year later, a rebel com­man­der known as ‘Givi’ was kil­led in Donetsk as part of an ope­ra­ti­on in which a woman who accu­sed him of rape was enlis­ted to plant a bomb at his side, accord­ing to a for­mer offi­cial invol­ved in the mission. 

Und 2017. Wobei bei dem Plot­de­sign komm ich lei­der nicht mit. Improvisation?

Ukrai­ni­an offi­cials said the country’s turn to more let­hal methods was dri­ven by Rus­si­an aggres­si­on, atro­ci­ties attri­bu­t­ed to its pro­xies and despe­ra­ti­on to find ways to wea­ken a more power­ful advers­a­ry. Many also cited Russia’s own alle­ged histo­ry of con­duc­ting assas­si­na­ti­ons in Kyiv.

Gut, aber die Rus­sen waren ja Schuld.

Becau­se of this hybrid war we faced an abso­lute­ly new rea­li­ty,” said Valen­tyn Naly­vai­chen­ko, a mem­ber of Ukraine’s par­lia­ment who ser­ved as SBU direc­tor in 2015, when the Fifth Direc­to­ra­te was crea­ted. “We were for­ced to train our peop­le in a dif­fe­rent way.”

He decli­ned to elaborate.

Obwohl das auch abso­lut neu war!

So, der nächs­te Punkt ist jetzt -

Trans­forming Ukrai­ni­an mili­ta­ry intelligence

Und die Hälf­te des Arti­kels ist noch ausständig.

Ich brauch mal eine Pause…









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