The strategy is worthy of one of the greatest spy films. If their precise location, along the Russian border, is still kept secret, the existence of 12 American bases in Ukraine was revealed by the New York Times, in a long investigation published this Sunday, February 25.
Underground or nestled in a forest, these military bases are “almost entirely financed and partly equipped” by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), reports the American newspaper. Thus, this agency, as well as other American intelligence branches, provide information on Russian strikes, track Moscow’s army to monitor its movements and support spy networks.
As Ukraine and Russia enter their third year of armed conflict, CIA operations in the central European country began well before Russia’s offensive.
In 2014, after the country’s pro-Kremlin government was overthrown and ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and his spy chiefs fled to Russia, Ukraine’s new intelligence chief, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, reportedly appealed to the CIA and British MI6. The objective being to build a partnership and rebuild the Ukrainian agency, whose computers had been erased or infected by Russian malware.
Operation “Goldfish”
The CIA reportedly began sending equipment in 2016, starting with “encrypted radios and devices to intercept the enemy’s secret communications,” details the American daily. Beyond the purely material aspect, the American agency would also have supervised a training program “to teach Ukrainian intelligence agents to convincingly adopt false identities and steal secrets in Russia and other countries.” other countries expert in the extermination of spies.
This program, called “Operation Goldfish” (goldfish), would have made it possible to train officers, who were subsequently deployed to the 12 bases in Ukraine. Gathered within a team known as “Unit 2245”, these soldiers would have notably stolen Russian drones and communications equipment to be passed to the CIA for analysis. One of the unit’s officers was Kyrylo Budanov, now a general at the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, recalls the New York Times.
At the time, the American agency was supposed to strengthen kyiv’s intelligence services, “without provoking the Russians”, specifies the newspaper in its investigation. But the situation will change with the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022 and intelligence support is quickly reinforced.
The CIA also helped foil a plot against the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a senior Ukrainian official interviewed by the daily, while Russian services regularly attempt to assassinate senior officials from the enemy camp.
A partnership suspended in the American Congress
Today, journalists from New York Times claim that “these intelligence networks” have transformed Ukraine into “an intelligence-gathering hub that has intercepted more Russian communications than the CIA station in Russia.” And this, even if the continuity of this partnership is however threatened by the blocking of American military aid in Congress, with a Republican majority.
In order to show his support for Kiev, but also to reassure its leaders, CIA Director William J. Burns went to Ukraine on Thursday, February 22, as part of a visit secret – the tenth since the start of the war.