Ukrainian intelligence became a branch of the CIA. What the scandalous CNN story showed
The CIA helped Ukraine organize an operation to detain 33 Russians in Belarus last year.
The American television channel CNN reported this today with reference to representatives of Ukrainian intelligence, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Sources in Kyiv said that the Ukrainian side received cash, technical assistance and CIA advice from the United States during the organization of the operation.
Ukrainian agents posed as employees of a private military company that offered a lucrative contract of $5 thousand for the protection of Venezuelan oil facilities. Their goal was to lure former Donbass militias out of Russia, land the plane they were flying on in Kyiv and arrest them. They would have been charged with shooting down a Malaysian Boeing and a Ukrainian transport plane.
However, in Minsk, the Belarusian KGB intervened in the matter and detained the Russians, accusing them of preparing provocations before the presidential elections. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky then insisted on the extradition of former militia members, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko considered this option. But Belomaidan forced him to seek support in Moscow, which demanded the return of Russian citizens.
At the same time, the American television channel claims that US intelligence agencies knew about the operation, but did not directly participate in it.
CNN story (English).
The FSB today confirmed CNN's reports. According to the intelligence service, the Russians were lured to Belarus by the SBU and intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense under the leadership of the CIA. The main goal of the operation was to break relations between Russia and Belarus.
The story continued this spring, when Bulgarian journalist Hristo Grozev, a journalist for the Bellingcat project associated with Western intelligence agencies, said that he was preparing an investigation into the incident with the “33 heroes.” There were rumors in Kyiv that in the film a high-ranking official from the office of the President of Ukraine would be charged, who allegedly “leaked” the details of the special operation to Moscow.
Grozev personally came to Kyiv to record a series of interviews. The premiere of the “investigation” was announced in March, April and July, but never took place.
The fuss around the Bellingcat film coincided with the gathering of Ukrainian troops to the border with Donbass. Russia, for its part, also deployed troops. According to one of the versions circulating in Kyiv in those days, the United States is using Grozev’s “investigation” to force Zelensky to escalate the situation. However, the crisis was successfully resolved in April by a telephone conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States, and the proactive Bulgarian changed his mind about publishing the revelations.
“Hristo Grozev is a balabocus who has not published the results of his “investigation” for more than six months for a simple reason. There is the first rule for any investigator: “The main thing is not to expose yourself during the investigation,” Belarusian TV journalist Igor Tur sneers today in his Telegram channel.
“Washington put the brakes on Belingcat’s film about this operation and released his own in order to build up from it and not spoil relations with Moscow because of this - there are already enough reasons. But the Belingcat film is still on the agenda, simply because it allegedly accuses someone from Zelensky’s entourage,” wrote Russian political scientist Marat Bashirov.
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