𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐲 𝐂𝐈𝐀-𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐔𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝.

According to the  Washington Post Ukrainian agents with CIA connections have conducted a shadow war against Russia, including a car explosion that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin. The SBU, Ukraine’s domestic security organization, orchestrated the operation, which involved a secret compartment in a pet carrier.

These operations have been portrayed as severe measures that Ukraine was forced to use in response to Russia’s invasion last year. In actuality, they represent capabilities developed by Ukraine’s spy services over nearly a decade, beginning with Russia’s initial seizure of Ukrainian land in 2014. The agency has spent tens of millions of dollars to turn Ukraine’s Soviet-formed services into formidable allies against Moscow. The amount of the CIA’s participation with Ukraine’s security agencies has never been made public.

Many of Ukraine’s covert operations had clear military goals and aided the country’s defense. The car explosion that murdered Daria Dugina highlighted Ukraine’s adoption of what officials in Kyiv regard to as “liquidations” as a weapon of war.

The CIA-Ukraine relationship, which began in 2014 in response to political unrest and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has grown to include violent operations against Russia. The SBU’s director, Vasyl Malyuk, declared that all targets attacked by the SBU are legal, and Ukraine “does everything to assure that fair punishment will ‘catch up’ with all traitors, war criminals, and accomplices.” Both sides have tried to keep the CIA at a safe distance from the violent operations carried out by its Ukrainian colleagues. After several missions, CIA officials expressed concerns, but the agency did not withdraw its assistance.

The CIA’s close collaboration with Ukraine, which continued even as the country became engaged in the impeachment issue involving President Donald Trump, reflects a major shift for institutions that spent decades on opposing sides of the Cold War. Because of this history, the CIA just recently removed Ukraine from its “non-fraternization” list of countries deemed to pose such security threats that interaction with their residents for agency workers is prohibited without previous approval.

Handpicked recruits were instructed by CIA operatives at training centers located outside of Kyiv. The CIA provided secure communications technology, eavesdropping devices, disguises, and separatist uniforms to enable operatives to more easily slip into seized communities. However, the activities quickly became violent, with at least a half-dozen Russian operatives, high-ranking separatist commanders, or accomplices killed in violence typically claimed to internal score-settling but in reality being the work of the SBU.

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