In 2015, one year after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Mr. Valeriy Kondratyuk, then Director of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, wanted to receive US support to strengthen the plan to deal with Russia, but he was reluctant. American newspapers are still cautious.
Then Mr. Kondratyuk’s “gift” – top secret military documents about Russia – sent to US intelligence officials can be seen as one of the first bricks laying the foundation for extensive cooperation. between US intelligence agencies and Ukraine, which were previously on opposite sides of the Cold War front line.
Officer of the Defense Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR) controls an unmanned boat
According to former intelligence officials from the two countries told ABC News, the cooperation gives Kyiv information to be able to defend itself against Moscow, while Washington will have a view into Russia’s decision-making process, based on the fact that Ukraine and Russia used to belong to the Soviet Union and are more or less close.
“They (Ukraine) went from nothing to one of our most important partners, somewhere on the level of the relationship between US and British intelligence. Their access to information is very important, due to being a long-time ally with Russia. They know things that we have almost no clue about,” a former US intelligence official told ABC News.
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is said to have supported Kyiv in rebuilding the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (HUR), spending millions of dollars training Ukrainian intelligence officers, building infrastructure, includes dozens of secret operating bases near the Russian border. The intelligence agencies of the two countries also carry out joint operations on a global scale, which is considered to demonstrate the highest level of reliability in the field of intelligence.
US newspaper: CIA sets up base to help Ukraine conduct campaign against Russia
Build trust
More than 10 years ago, in 2014, the “Euromaidan” protest wave broke out in Ukraine, culminating in the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The new pro-Western government then appointed Mr. Valentyn Nalyvaichenko as Director of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). However, what “shocked” him was that most of the agency’s leaders had fled to Russia and Crimea.
Mr. Nalyvaichenko said that the SBU was dominated from within and that even some members of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) worked in the SBU’s cybersecurity department. After that, he called the US and British embassies to ask the two countries for support in rebuilding SBU training programs.
It was the instability in Ukraine’s intelligence community that initially made Western intelligence worried about wanting to cooperate with Kyiv, especially the military intelligence agency HUR. The fact that Mr. Valeriy Kondratyuk became the leader of HUR and the bold decision to go to the US to propose cooperation began a period of strong coordination between Kyiv and Washington in an area that was previously secretive to the public.
Ukrainian forces prepare weapons during a training session
“It is not easy to convince America that we are worthy. Therefore, I decided to give it away without receiving anything in return,” said Mr. Kondratyuk, referring to the disclosure of top secret military documents to the US. CIA appraisers initially left open the possibility that the documents Mr. Kondratyuk provided were information that Moscow intentionally leaked to “spread smoke”. However, later they realized that this was valuable information.
Since the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine has shared a lot of information related to Russia, including the decision-making process, weapon system designs, and electronic warfare technology. “We need Ukraine as much as they need us on the Russia issue,” said a former US official.
Red lines
Intelligence cooperation between Ukraine and the US and UK has been closer since 2016, with many programs to train Ukrainian officers operating in Russia, collect intelligence, monitor activities and carry out covert operations. .
Speaking of Ukraine and Russia being geographically and politically close, this could be a double-edged sword for Ukraine. On the one hand, Kyiv may be more convenient in exploiting secret information about Russia than its Western partners, but on the other hand, there is a high risk of secret Ukrainian information being disclosed to Moscow intelligence. Therefore, HUR created a new group and only recruited employees under 30 years old, not involved in the past of Russia and Ukraine when they belonged to the Soviet Union.
Despite the extensive development cooperation, the three US presidential administrations, respectively of Mr. Barack Obama, Mr. Donald Trump and Mr. Joe Biden, are more or less cautious that the intelligence relationship between the US and Ukraine could provoke Russia. The leader of the US national security agency has repeatedly emphasized that we should only focus on gathering information and prevent the CIA from supporting Kyiv in deadly or destructive activities aimed at Russia. These are considered Washington’s “red lines” and Kyiv is often dissatisfied because the US places too many restrictions.
The conflict once occurred when Mr. Kondratyuk sent an intelligence unit to Crimea to carry out an operation to plant explosives at a Russian base, but the plan was revealed, leading to a gun battle with Russian special forces and several deaths. causing Russian President Vladimir Putin to publicly warn of a response. The above mission angered former US President Obama and Mr. Valeriy Kondratyuk, who contributed to building intelligence relations between the two countries, had to lose his position as director of HUR afterward.
Some restrictions were relaxed by the US when Russia launched its campaign to attack Ukraine in 2022. US President Joe Biden’s administration allowed CIA agents to stay in Ukrainian territory. Although they are not authorized to directly kill Russians, the CIA can still provide information about targets to Ukraine.
