How Western spy services turned the tide in the Ukraine war

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In addition to weapons, Ukraine receives intelligence from the West, including on Russian war crimes. This secret support should have remained secret because so far it was considered a great success, writes Deutsche Welle.

Russia's war against Ukraine is also a spy war. The Ukrainian armed forces have been fiercely resisting Russian attacks for weeks. They are supported by Western countries, not only with weapons, ammunition, equipment, training and materials, but also with intelligence. Above all, the United States and Britain, as well as other NATO countries, support Ukrainian troops with their secret services.

They send satellite imagery, assist in electronic reconnaissance, intercept Russian radio messages or warn of impending air strikes. Experts from the British wiretapping service GCHK have been helping Ukraine defend itself from Russian cyber attacks for months.

Thus, the justice ministers of the network of secret services "Five Eyes" promised Ukraine assistance in prosecuting Russian war crimes. He will also support the International Criminal Court, explained the heads of departments of the United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Ukraine's state prosecutor's office recently said it was investigating more than 11.000 cases of alleged war crimes. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court has sent 42 investigators to Ukraine.

The success of intelligence

The public is generally silent about how extensive the assistance of foreign services is, what it looks like and what it achieves. However, US intelligence circles are already talking about one of the biggest successes of the intelligence services, comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the discovery of the main terrorist Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.

"We regularly provide detailed and timely intelligence to Ukrainians on the battlefield to assist them in defending their country from Russian aggression, and we will continue to do so," the White House said in a statement in late April.

There were no more details. However, on several occasions, it is said that the Soviet secret services gave the Ukrainian army a decisive advantage - and inflicted significant losses on the Russian army. So at least recently several American media reported.

According to a study by the New York Times, US intelligence has helped the Ukrainian military kill XNUMX Russian generals so far. The Washington Post, on the other hand, reported that US services had provided the Ukrainians with the exact coordinates of the Russian warship Moscow, which had been sunk in a precision missile attack.

The fact that Russian paratroopers failed to carry out a surprise attack on the Hostomel airport near Kyiv in the first days of the war is a consequence of, as stated, the warning of the CIA secret service to the Ukrainians.

CIA chief Barnes warns

The US government is just not enthusiastic about these reports and is obviously trying to limit the damage. A Pentagon spokesman said the United States was providing information to Ukraine about the war but did not provide specific information on the whereabouts of senior Russian military officials. It also does not matter what targets Ukraine attacks. "To be honest, Ukrainians have a lot more information than us," the spokesman said.

CIA Director William Barnes has called for secrecy in connection with intelligence assistance to Ukraine. At a public hearing last week, Barnes did not deny media reports, saying only: "It's irresponsible. "It's dangerous when people talk too much about intelligence, privately or publicly."

The United States does not want to be a party to the war

There is a very practical reason why, unlike arms deliveries, there is no talk of intelligence cooperation: the services do not want to lose their resources, be they human resources, who have access to the Russian army or even the Kremlin. or technical monitoring capabilities.

Political aspects also play a role: the more detailed information on multiple support for Ukraine becomes available, the more one can get the impression that it is a mediation war. Something the United States is particularly keen to avoid, although it is undeniable that US support and years of training of US military personnel have contributed significantly to Ukraine's military success to date.

The United States similarly, more or less secretly, helped suppress Moscow troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s. At that time, the Soviet Union invaded a neighboring country to establish a puppet communist government. The United States and other countries then used weapons to support the Afghan insurgents, the Mujahideen. The Soviet Union engaged in a ten-year guerrilla war that ended with the withdrawal of the Soviet army in 1989.

BND involved in Afghanistan

The German intelligence service (BND) was also involved in Afghanistan at the time. In the mid-1980s, at the initiative of some members of the Bundestag, a secret operation called "Summer Rain" was launched. For years, the BND has provided aid to mujahideen in Germany, including jackets, boots, tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, night-vision devices, motorcycles and even field hospitals.

In return, Afghan fighters procured the latest Soviet weapons from the battlefield, which were assessed by the BND and made available to NATO.

However, the German government does not talk about the current activities of the BND in Ukraine. A few weeks ago, in secret meetings in parliament, it was announced that no member of the BND was active directly in the war zone, but that there was an "active exchange" with Ukrainians and other services in the region and there was great interest in Russian technology and equipment. weapons.

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