Observe the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation: Pentagon intends to restore the Secret programs in Ukraine - WP
In case of approval, this will allow US troops to use Ukrainian operatives to monitor the movement of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and counteract misinformation. About it reports the publication of The Washington Post with reference to current and former US officials. According to journalists, if successful, these programs can be renewed since 2024.
However, it is not clear whether the US Presidential Administration Joe Baiden will return to the American command in Ukraine, or the military will try to do so from a neighboring country. Officials in Congress are not sure that the Pentagon will get the desired result, as members of the Republican Party can oppose the significant amounts that Washington provides Kiev.
At the same time, other Congress representatives point out that $ 15 million per year spent on secret programs around the world is a mizer in terms of benefit. The retired General Mark Schwartz, who was in charge of special operations in Europe, stated that US military officials seek to restore work in Ukraine to ensure that "a difficulty relationship" will not be lost "as they continue the war with the Russian Federation.
"When you stop these actions because of the change in the scale of the conflict, you lose access, which means that you lose information and information about what is actually happening during the conflict," he said. Critics of renewal of secret programs in Ukraine note that this will further increase Washington's involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian war against the background of expansion of military assistance of the Armed Forces.
In addition, in their view, the Russian Federation can perceive it as provocation and expand the extent of the invasion. "What started as a reconnaissance mission can quickly turn into fighting when" surrogates "will start shooting. I think it is a real risk in Ukraine and I'm not sure how Pentagon is about to change people's opinions in Congress on this ", - said one of the officials. However, the Pentagon says that operatives and their curators will only perform non -violent tasks.
Before the invasion of the US Special Operations, two surrogate programs of irregular fighting were conducted in Ukraine. One of them included the analysis of Russian propaganda. After that, people wrote the truth in their blogs. The American special forces used the second program to send Ukrainian operatives for secret intelligence missions in eastern Ukraine. "We taught the false persons to collect reconnaissance signals from the battery of Russian radars . . . etc.
We did not teach or pay Ukrainians to kill the Russians for us," the official said. Mark Schwartz said that the United States did not supply them with weapons that could cause problems. "We were not going to equip Ukrainians with difficult means for using explosives, because if they carry it across the border to Russia and use an American explosive for sabotage operations that we have not sanctioned, it will be an escalation," he said.