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Ukraine 2022

It has never been a secret that in foreign conflicts the US was interested in, the US has routinely provided training and assistance, and dispatched the CIA's Special Activities Division to operate on the ground.

Dmitry Simes commented 18 August 2024: "Biden is using Ukraine as the tip of the spear that NATO is using against Russia, as cannon fodder, ensuring a constant flow of soldiers, and, one might say, coffins, Ukrainian coffins, which allow the West to minimize losses, and, of course, the United States. This is also an important and generally recognized point. ... Biden constantly assures them that the United States is not waging any war against Russia, that they are not even parties to the conflict, that they are simply helping poor, unfortunate and noble Ukraine defend itself against the Russian Empire.... This is, you know, an interesting fairy tale for the feeble-minded. Even Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelensky, recently stated that yes, of course, Kyiv consulted with Washington, but not publicly. Well, I don’t know what to say here. Since when is “publicly” or “not publicly” a criterion for participation in a war? Yes, for Washington this is a secret war, but it does not become any less large-scale and it does not become any less dangerous for the United States itself.... But to talk about American non-participation, moreover, about American ignorance of Ukrainian actions in the Kursk region - this, you know, is not even funny. It is simply insulting to give this kind of argumentation when serious, high-ranking officials are talking to each other."

The commander of the Akhmat special forces, deputy head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Apti Alaudinov, stated 20 August 2024 that active military units of NATO countries are among the mercenaries in the Kursk direction. "We must understand that all the rabble that exists has been gathered. They have also added a huge number of foreign mercenaries, as many as they could muster. I think that among these foreign mercenaries, it should be noted, there are people who are directly serving in NATO units ," Alaudinov said on the air of the Rossiya-1 TV channel. The Chargé d'Affaires of the United States of America in Russia, Stephanie Holmes, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and a strong protest was lodged in connection with the participation of American mercenaries in the invasion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the Kursk region, the department reported.

Ken Klippenstein and William M. Arkin reported 19 August 2024 "the United States is operating a formal “sensitive activities” detachment that is active in providing direct military support to the beleaguered country. The detachment, never before disclosed, is run by U.S. Special Operations forces, and with its Ukrainian counterparts, provides on-the-battlefield support, including near-real time targeting intelligence".

The U.S. military defines¹ sensitive activities as: “Operations, actions, activities, or programs that are generally handled through special access, compartmented, or other sensitive control mechanisms because of the nature of the target, the area of operation, or other designated aspects. Sensitive activities also include operations, actions, activities, or programs conducted by any DOD Component that, if compromised, could have enduring adverse effects on U.S. foreign policy, DOD activities, or military operations; or cause significant embarrassment to the United States, its allies, or the DoD.”

American intelligence has been reportedly working with Ukrainians for decades, but intensified its contacts in the wake of the 2014 Revolution of Dignity supported by the western governments. The training by the CIA Ground Branch started at the same time. The US' CIA has been running a dedicated program to train Ukrainian special operations forces on American soil, possibly to prepare them for a standoff with Russian forces and running an "insurgency", Yahoo News reported citing numerous former intelligence and national security officials.

The program was reportedly operated by the CIA's Ground Department (also known as Ground Branch) and was launched by President Barack Obama in 2015 after the West-backed coup in Ukraine that sparked an insurgency in the country's east. Since then, the programme, which reportedly provided Ukrainian forces with firearms training, drills in using camouflage, exercises in land navigation and tactics, as well as training in intelligence gathering, received the backing of the two subsequent presidents, the sources claimed.

The former and present agency and national security officials, who talked with Yahoo News, gave varying descriptions of the programme's purpose. Some insisted that the programme was never meant to serve as offensive in its nature.

Yahoo News pointed out that the "intelligence support" missions might vary in nature in the paramilitary context. The outlet also stressed that it is unclear how the Ukrainian forces will use the knowledge they have gained. One former intelligence official claimed in the interview with the news website that the training was set to enhance the ability of Kiev forces to "push back against the Russians".

However, some of the officials outright told Yahoo that the CIA is "training an insurgency" under this programme and that its alumni were explicitly taught how "to kill Russians". CIA spokesman Tammy Thorp rejected the claims. "Suggestions that we have trained an armed insurgency in Ukraine are simply false," Thorp said.

Some of the news website's sources claimed that the purpose of these forces would be to make Russia's life "miserable" should it decide to invade Ukraine – something the Kremlin has repeatedly rejected that it has in mind. Kiev's forces were reportedly trained on how to "organise the resistance" behind the enemy lines with one former intelligence official comparing their tactics with what the US faced in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban*.

Yahoo News' sources also said that the CIA provided the Ukrainians with limited intelligence training for decades, but intensified these contacts after the 2014 coup. However, these efforts reportedly faced some unprecedented challenges – namely fears that Ukraine’s intelligence services were riddled with Russian spies. It reportedly got to a point of establishing a rule not to tell Ukrainians more than the CIA was ready to let Russia know.

A secret training program in Ukraine run by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped Ukrainians prepare for Russia's special military operation in the country, Yahoo News reported on T 16 March 2022. The CIA training program began around 2014 when the conflict in the Donbass region started but the Biden administration pulled out all CIA personnel from Ukraine before the start of Russia's military operation in that country, the report said, citing former officials. The covert CIA training program was run from Ukraine's eastern frontlines, possible through previously existing authorities for the agency that did not require a new legal determination, the report said. Only a small number of CIA paramilitary officers in the low single digits were sent to eastern Ukraine, the report added.

CIA personnel and commandos from the UK, France, Canada and Lithuania have been operating in Ukraine since the outset of the Russian special operation despite the US and NATO denying deploying their forces there, according to the New York Times 27 June 2022.

"I believe the New York Times report is correct in every detail," says Philip Giraldi, a former CIA station chief and military intelligence officer. "It is what I have been hearing. There is considerable training at the Grafenwoehr, Germany army base to familiarize the Ukrainians with the new weapons arriving. Meanwhile there are cadres of special operations soldiers and intelligence personnel operating primarily in western Ukraine. They are not in uniform and many of them are working under various cover designations, including sometimes loose affiliations with foreign embassies and NGOs. All of which means that Biden and other Western leaders are lying about their active participation in the conflict."

Ahead of the Russian special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, the US withdrew its own 150 military instructors. However, some CIA operatives continued their service in the country secretly, directing most of the intelligence flow the US is sharing with Ukrainian forces, according to the NYT. In addition to that, commandos from Washington's NATO allies have been managing the flow of weapons and equipment in Ukraine and providing training. The NYT specifies, citing American and other Western officials that the commandos are not on the front lines with Ukrainian troops.

Even though the US and NATO member states do not acknowledge that their personnel are operating in Ukraine, Russia and other intelligence services around the world are aware of this, according to the newspaper.

Deploying CIA personnel (which encompasses military as well as intelligence operatives) "is completely typical of the initial stages of a US-backed long war, and for long-term political manipulation of the target country," according to retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense.

"This is the future that neoconservative 'strategists' in DC and their British and European allies imagine for Ukraine," Kwiatkowski highlights. "Rather than a negotiated conclusion, with a new Ukrainian role as a neutral and productive country, independent of both Russian and US political influences, the US government and CIA see Ukraine as an expendable yet useful satrap in its competition with the Russian Federation."

The ex-DoD analyst emphasizes that the effort is serious, given that the funding for CIA operations and arms sales and support and training has been flowing freely from Congress and President Biden. It also means that the intel operations in and around Ukraine are "of critical importance" to Washington, according to her.

Washington has made considerable financial, diplomatic and political investment in Ukraine over the recent decades and it cannot afford "losing" it. "Coming on the heels of similar 'losses' in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and potentially some of the Gulf states, there are those in Washington who would find the complete loss of Ukraine unacceptable," she stresses.

The US is equally involved in former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries, such as Lithuania, and Poland, to take the post-Soviet space under control "as part of the war to maintain US influence and contain Russian influence," according to the former Pentagon analyst. "Recent Lithuanian steps to enforce EU sanctions on the Russian Baltic Sea trade port and naval city of Kaliningrad speaks to the nature of what is to come, in the eyes of the US strategists," she points out.

CIA personnel visited Ukraine with multiple secret missions to provide assistance to Kiev with the operations of new weapons and systems, the American Newsweek magazine reported on 05 July 2023. Information about some of those trips was kept private. At the same time, all the missions were conducted to avoid direct confrontation with Russian troops, the report added.

“The CIA has been operating inside Ukraine, under strict rules, and with a cap on how many personnel can be in the country at any one time," one of the officials said. He also noted that during these missions, CIA personnel was restricted from conducting clandestine activities or did it within “a very narrow scope."

The report said it could not verify the exact number of CIA personnel in Ukraine, but sources noted it is less than 100 people at any particular time. The CIA asked the publication not to identify specific points in Ukraine where the agency is working, the report said. It also added that the agency uses Poland as a hub for its Ukraine-related operations. For instance, CIA Director William Burns visited the country several times, and the agency’s officers are able to communicate from there with their agents, including in Ukraine and Russia.

Russia had been warning countries giving weapons to Ukraine that it sees military shipments as legitimate targets. Moreover, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that NATO allies' arming and training Ukrainians is tantamount to direct involvement in the conflict.

Russian Defense Ministry said 10 July 2023 that Kiev has stepped up recruitment of mercenaries in the US and Canada, facilitated by the CIA and private military companies controlled by it. "Due to a decline in interest in dying 'for the Kiev regime' in Poland, the UK, and other European countries, recruitment activities in the US and Canada have intensified," the ministry said.

"Foreign mercenaries are used as 'cannon fodder' by the Kiev regime. Their lives are not spared by anyone in the Ukrainian command. Therefore, they have only one choice - to flee Ukraine or to die. The Russian armed forces will continue to destroy foreign mercenaries in the course of the special military operation, regardless of their location on the territory of Ukraine," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Russian defense ministry said "As of June 30, the destruction of 4,845 foreign mercenaries in the course of hostilities, the vast majority from the United States, Canada and European countries, has been reliably confirmed," the ministry said, adding that 4,801 foreign fighters escaped from the territory of Ukraine after mistreatment from Kiev.

Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine has highlighted that the era of nation-state competition and conflict has not been relegated to the past but instead has emerged as a defining characteristic of the current era. While Russia is challenging the United States and some norms in the international order in its war of territorial aggression, China has the capability to directly attempt to alter the rules-based global order in every realm and across multiple regions, as a near-peer competitor that is increasingly pushing to change global norms and potentially threatening its neighbors. Russia’s military action against Ukraine demonstrates that it remains a revanchist power, intent on using whatever tools are needed to try to reestablish a perceived sphere of influence despite what its neighbors desire for themselves, and is willing to push back on Washington both locally and globally.

Russia probably does not want a direct military conflict with U.S. and NATO forces, but there is potential for that to occur. Russian leaders thus far have avoided taking actions that would broaden the Ukraine conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders, but the risk for escalation remains significant.

There is real potential for Russia’s military failures in the war to hurt Russian President Vladimir Putin’s domestic standing and thereby trigger additional escalatory actions by Russia in an effort to win back public support. Heightened claims that the United States is using Ukraine as a proxy to weaken Russia, and that Ukraine’s military successes are only a result of U.S. and NATO intervention could presage further Russian escalation. Russia’s officials have long believed that the United States is trying to undermine Russia, weaken Putin, and install Western-friendly regimes in the post–Soviet states and elsewhere, which they conclude gives Russia leeway to escalate or widen the war if it chooses.

Russia’s so-called special military operation against Ukraine has not yielded the outcome that Putin had expected. After its initial large-scale invasion of Ukraine on three fronts on 24 February 2022, Russia abandoned its efforts to capture Kyiv, withdrew from much of northern Ukraine, and focused on the Donbas region and other parts of southern Ukraine.

Putin probably miscalculated the ability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the degree to which it would have some success on the battlefield. The Russian military has and will continue to face issues of attrition, personnel shortages, and morale challenges that have left its forces vulnerable to Ukrainian counterattacks. Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilization of mostly untrained and unprepared reservists will alleviate personnel shortage in the near term, but risks undermining Russian domestic support for the conflict.

CIA-Ukraine cooperation took root in the aftermath of the 2014 political protests that led the former Ukrainian president to flee the country. The CIA worked with the SBU to create an entirely new directorate, officials said. The 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 to work with Britain's MI6 spy agency, the officials said.

Training sites were set up outside Kiev, where hand-picked recruits were trained by CIA personnel, the officials said. The plan was to form units "capable of operating behind the front lines and working as covert groups," a Ukrainian official said. Problem may arise “if members of the GUR or SBU feel that they were betrayed by the West.... “And then there's always the possibility that they could try to seek revenge out of that. "

Ukraine has received tens of millions of dollars from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States for the development of its special services, as reported by The Washington Post 23 October 2023. “According to current and former Ukrainian and American officials, elite teams of Ukrainian operatives who were formed, trained, and equipped in close partnership with the CIA were involved in Ukraine’s missions,” the publication stated.

The agency’s aim was to transform Ukraine’s Soviet-style special services into allies in the fight against Moscow. Ukraine obtained cutting-edge surveillance systems from the CIA. Americans trained recruits on sites both in Ukraine and the USA, and the intelligence exchange took place on a scale that was inconceivable before Russia’s occupation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine, The Washington Post asserts.

Initial stages of cooperation were tentative, given the concerns of both sides about the continued penetration of the Ukrainian services by Russia’s FSB. Therefore, the CIA worked with Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) to establish a new department that would focus on “active measures” against Russia and would be isolated from other SBU units.

According to official sources cited by The Washington Post, the initial missions were concentrated on recruiting informants among Russian proxy forces and cyber and electronic eavesdropping efforts. The SBU also began conducting sabotage operations and missions to capture separatist leaders and Ukrainian collaborators, some of whom were taken to undisclosed detention sites.

However, over time, the consequences of these operations began to turn lethal, The Washington Post continues. In the course of three years, at least half a dozen Russian operatives, high-ranking separatist commanders, or collaborators have been eliminated as a result of actions often attributed to internal settling of scores, but were actually the work of the SBU. “We never involved our international partners in covert operations, especially across the front line,” a former Ukrainian law enforcement officer told the publication.

Ukraine’s inclination towards lethal operations complicated its cooperation with the CIA and raised concerns among Washington officials about the agency’s involvement, The Washington Post asserts. Nevertheless, according to a high-ranking Ukrainian security official, Ukraine always avoided using weapons or equipment that could be traced back to U.S. sources.

As previously reported by The Gaze, the Ukrainian Parliament established a temporary special commission for controlling the receipt and use of material and technical assistance from Western partners back in 2022. Half a year later, the United States created a similar commission. In 2022, Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council and the Ministry of Defence, with support from allies, also launched monitoring systems for Western weaponry, including LOGFAS, Karavai, and SOTA.