Miffed Moscow mouths ‘well known’ as NYT reveals CIA used Ukraine to spy on Russia for decade with 12 secret bases

A report in The New York Times has created ripples in geopolitics, especially in the already choppy diplomatic waters between Russia and the US. For a decade, the report says, US has been staging spy ops into Russia from Ukrainian soil.

In fact, the news report claims the intelligence communities of Ukraine and America are so thick that CIA stayed back when all US personal and citizens were evacuated before Russia attacked in Feb 2022.

Even as the Russia-Ukraine War enters the third year of bloodshed and mayhem, CIA has 12 listening posts and spy bases along the border between the warring countries. These bases, the report claims, have been almost entirely financed by the CIA and partially equipped by US spooks.

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The New York Times quoted General Serhii Dvoretskiy, a top Ukrainian intelligence commander, on this.

Two-way Traffic

It is this joint intel gathering that has kept Ukraine afloat. The report says that this intelligence symbiosis started a decade ago and both the sides have reaped its fruits. The partnership has gone through several phases—from distrust to trust, to keeping secrets—under several administrations in the White House, but the two intelligence communities have kept it intact, more or less, in any event.

How did the Americans come to know of alleged Russian involvement in downing Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 that killed 300? Ukrainians presented the “evidence”—intercepts.

How was US able to target alleged Russian operatives who tried to rig the 2016 presidential election? Again, Ukrainians intercepted info and relayed.

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All this gained the Ukrainians the trust of CIA.

The Agency, in return, trained a special branch of Ukrainian commandoes—Unit 2245—that captured Russian communication equipment and drones, which were deconstructed to break Moscow’s encryption methods by the CIA. A member of the CIA-trained Unit 2245, Kyrylo Budanov, is now heading the Ukrainian military intelligence (MI).

The New York Times also claims that CIA trained a whole new generation of Ukraine spooks and spies, who came in quite handy in ops in Europe, Cuba, inside Russia and in countries where Moscow holds considerable sway. One of the main reasons that Ukraine spies found way more success than CIA operatives in these regions was racial and linguistic affinity.

How Ukraine courted CIA

General Valeriy Kondratiuk, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence back in 2015, put the matter in perspective: Russian getting turned or recruited by Americans was hara-kiri, but getting recruited by a Ukrainian would be like “drinking beer with a friend”.

The relationship was assiduously built, The New York Times, says by the Ukrainian side. The news article suggests that Valeriy Kondratiuk gave the CIA copious secret documents about Russia’s closely guarded naval secrets, including designs of the latest nuclear submarines.

This relationship, on timeline, dates to when the Ukrainians overthrew the pro-Russian regime in 2014. The CIA director even flew to Ukraine and met with his counterparts there, agreeing to start a nexus, but in a way that CIA was comfortable with. This meant that, to begin with, the CIA did not want to share such intel that would lead to any lethal strikes inside Russia, for the general fear in Washington for poking the Russian bear in the open.

Ukraine Painted Outside Lines Too

All this was positive, but the Ukraine side still felt that these rules of engagement were like boxing with hands tied behind back. As a way around this, Ukraine’s intelligence apparatus created a new paramilitary unit that would operate deep inside enemy lines in Russia to carry out operations and gather intel which MI6 or CIA would, otherwise, not share with them.

This was called the Fifth Directorate, The New York Times revealed, and only such were recruited who were born after the independence of Ukraine from Russia; people who did not know Soviet Union at all.

Rest is history, as they say.

Russian Reaction

The Kremlin, responding to the report in The New York Times (on which this article is based) said it was “well known” that CIA was supporting and helping Ukraine in its fight with Russia.

This collaboration, Moscow said, dated back to before 2014.