Western Intel Fiasco In Ukraine
You’ve probably heard or read about the Western attempt to suborn Russian pilots to defect along with a military plane or planes. Friend George brought a Russian article to my attention. It’s a fairly full account, so I’m pasting it in. As you may or may not have learned already, the effort backfired totally, with the Russians obtaining valuable intelligence regarding the location of air defenses in Ukraine. The Russians have also, naturally, taken advantage of the situation to ridicule Western intel services, specifically naming MI6.
According to this article, the aim of the failed operation was to derive propaganda benefits, presumably rather than actual military intelligence. I have no military expertise, so I have little to say about that. It appears to me that an opportunity to examine first hand the upgraded avionics and EW capabilities of, especially the SU-34 and TU-22 variants might have been a motive. The TU-22 is also capable of launching a wide range of missiles, including the hypersonic Kinzhal. That’s all pure speculation.
This is a Google translate job, so I can’t vouch for the word choices—some are a bit suspect, although the overall accuracy seems good.
FSB forced intelligence of Ukraine to reveal valuable secrets
July 25, 2022, 13:10
Photo: FSB RF/RIA Novosti
Text: Alyona Zadorozhnaya,
Daria VolkovaThe Federal Security Service announced the disruption of the military intelligence operation of Ukraine to hijack the aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces. This allowed our counterintelligence to obtain data on the location of Ukrainian air defense systems, airfield maps and elevation maps. What did Ukrainian intelligence count on when trying to bribe Russian pilots, what is the role of the British MI6 in this adventure, and how did the special services manage to disrupt the enemy’s operation?
On Monday, the Center for Public Relations (DSP) of the FSB reported that the special service had disrupted the operation of the Ukrainian military intelligence to hijack the aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which was supervised by the NATO special services. It was planned to hijack the Su-24 [“Fencer”], Su-34 [“Fullback]] or Tu-22MZ [“Backfire”][Tu-22M3?].
It is reported that “employees of the Ukrainian military intelligence, acting on behalf of the political leadership of their country, tried to recruit Russian military pilots for a monetary reward and guarantees of obtaining citizenship of one of the EU countries, to persuade them to fly and land aircraft at airfields controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
From the video materials released by the FSB, it also follows that Ukrainian intelligence itself disclosed to Russia the location of Ukrainian air defense systems and airfields. Among them are the air defense coverage areas in the south-east of Ukraine, the schemes of the Ozernoe (Chernihiv region) and Starokonstantinov (Khmelnytsky region) airfields, the height map of the vicinity of the Priluki airfield (Chernihiv region), the height map of the vicinity of Zhytomyr, RIA Novosti reports .
In addition, the Ukrainian military, preparing to receive a Russian combat aircraft, themselves revealed that it is in the settlements of Ukraine that the largest number of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) are concentrated. In addition, it turned out that the chief investigator of the Bellingcat publication (included in the register of media-foreign agents) Hristo Grozev participated in the Ukrainian military intelligence operation.
In the plot of the TV channel "Russia 24", dedicated to the disruption of the operation of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, a fragment of Grozev's correspondence with one of the participants in the operation is shown. Through his coordinator, Grozev found two couriers who met at the railway station in Lipetsk a courier from Moscow hired by Ukrainian intelligence officers who was carrying an advance payment of four thousand dollars for a Russian pilot who allegedly agreed to hijack.
“We know about Grozev’s involvement with (British foreign intelligence) MI6 not only from his statements,” an FSB operative said on the TV channel. “In general, recently, Ukrainian intelligence has ceased to hide its ties with the special services of NATO countries, and is striving to take a place closer to the owners from Washington and London,” he added.
The story shows operational video footage with the story of a courier coordinator named Dinar, who was detained by FSB operatives in his apartment in Kazan. “In fact, I have a lot of anger towards Khristo Grozev. I can explain why. I still trusted him as a person that he would never set me up ... That is why I easily agreed to all this, because I was completely sure that nothing threatened anyone. I didn’t think it was such a dirty business there,” said the young man.
Information about Grozev's participation in the Ukrainian intelligence operation was commented on by TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov. “Participation in the attempted hijacking of Russian combat aircraft by Khristo Grozev may well indicate that through him they began to use a network of bulk carriers as couriers for the SBU and Western intelligence services (to transfer a cash advance, deliver clonidine, etc.),” he wrote in his Telegram channel.
According to Solovyov, the same grid can be used to search for potential recruitment targets. “Who went to serve, who married a military man, who has family members who are military personnel. The old bookmarks of the Western intelligence services are starting to work. It is not for nothing that for so many years the West has sponsored Navalny's structures and pumped money into him personally. At the same time, they can recruit both ideological bulkheads and blackmail those naive simpletons who transferred money and leaked information to the structures of the codpiece-fuhrer. And this is no longer a “criticism of the authorities”, but a betrayal of the Motherland, ”added the TV presenter.
At the same time, military experts draw attention to the professionalism of Russian counterintelligence officers during the operational game with Ukrainian intelligence officers, who were supervised by specialists from NATO countries. On the other hand, representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and NATO made several primitive mistakes even at the stage of preparing the operation.
“It seems that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine does not know about the situation in our country. To date, the level of patriotism among citizens has increased many times over compared with the nineties. People understand why and why we are conducting a special operation. And in the army, the situation has changed for the better. So to carry out such an operation on the spur of the moment is a stupid idea, ” said Vladimir Popov, deputy editor-in-chief of the Aviapanorama magazine, Honored Military Pilot of the Russian Federation.
The expert ridiculed the conditions offered by the Ukrainian special services to Russian pilots. “The pilots who were approached with such tricky questions must have immediately reported everything to their leadership. After all, what is two million dollars today?” Popov sneered.
“Our pilots would not betray the country. They then still somehow need to maintain relations with their relatives. And they would not meet with understanding. Common sense worked here faster than any mercantile intentions, ”the expert is sure.
At the same time, the interlocutor did not rule out that after the proposal was received from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Russian counterintelligence officers and the military were playing a double game. “Our counterintelligence could plan everything so that, with a conditional transfer of the aircraft, to know the location of the enemy’s air defenses. As a result, we managed to obtain and confirm this important and very valuable information. So the Ukrainian intelligence officers revealed themselves more than they got any result. This is a great success for both the FSB and military counterintelligence,” Popov believes.
At the same time, the president of the International Association of Veterans of the Alfa anti-terror unit, Sergey Goncharov, is convinced that "sabotage attacks by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry will not stop until the Russian Armed Forces complete a special military operation."
“It was important for Ukrainian intelligence that these planes were piloted by pilots who know how to fly them. Therefore, the recruitment process was lengthy, many participants were involved in it. All this speaks of the deployment of sabotage work and an intelligence network of the intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine inside Russia, ”said the expert.
“Since February, more than three million Ukrainians have entered the territory of our country, and these, of course, are not only refugees – saboteurs and spies could successfully hide among them,” the source believes. “The FSB operation was successful thanks to the proper training of employees and their highest professionalism. Our counterintelligence, without exaggeration, prevents great tragedies, ”he is convinced.
“At the moment, we have not seen a single puncture of the Russian security agencies during the special military operation in Ukraine. Behind this is the responsible work of the entire service. There is also every reason to believe that the FSB has a fairly strong apparatus and a wide network of its agents in Ukraine,” Goncharov said. “But it’s too early to boast too much. The time is now extremely difficult and the operation in Ukraine is still ongoing. I think that after its completion it will be possible to give a more accurate assessment of the work of our special services,” he added.
On this topic
“Obviously, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in this story acted exclusively as a performer. The main players were the Western intelligence services. They tried to pull off an operation following the example of those that were carried out during the Cold War,” Boris Rozhin, an expert at the Center for Military-Political Journalism, said in a conversation with the VZGLYAD newspaper.
According to the interlocutor, "the enemy wanted to get some propaganda benefits from this." “We managed not only to stop an attempt to hijack Russian aircraft of the Aerospace Forces, but also, through operational play, penetrate into its plans and obtain extremely valuable information from the enemy. This allows the Russian Armed Forces to deliver more accurate strikes on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he said.
“This operation also received a great media effect. Already, some kind of blows are being dealt against foreign persons who have been “smeared” in this story,” the expert added, referring to the Bulgarian investigative journalist Hristo Grozev.
“I think the enemy will continue to resort to such provocations, will continue to bend the propaganda line. But we see that the situation is perfectly monitored by our special services, no one underestimates the enemy. The struggle between intelligence and counterintelligence will continue at different levels,” Rozhin concluded.
Was the author paid in rubles or dollars?