Cooperation with CIA was like a two-way street – former defence intelligence head of Ukraine

Valerii Kondratiuk, a former defence intelligence chief, has commented on The New York Times article that the US Central Intelligence Agency helped build secret bases in Ukraine for intelligence work against Russia.

Source: Valerii Kondratiuk, former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine and former head of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence on UP.Pidsumky ("Summary")

Quote: "This cooperation, this interaction (with the CIA – UP) is a two-way road. It was difficult to convince them that Ukraine was of crucial importance to them when everything was going well, when everything was established.

As for collecting information against Russia. The main thing here was not to tell them that they had to take risks, but to show them that this would open up new qualitative opportunities for their national security."

Details: Kondratiuk commented on reports that under Donald Trump's presidency, the CIA-DIU cooperation programme has expanded to include more specialised training programmes and the construction of additional secret bases.

Quote: "As for the bases, they were not bases, they were our own DIU capabilities that we were building. Because until then, there had been no intelligence capabilities against Russia. But, of course, when the territories were seized, these capabilities had to be created urgently. And we set up these intelligence points along the border with Russia.

And it was our partners who put a lot of effort into training. We recruited the best officers from DIU, who then received training in the West, both in terms of agents and technical skills. And then these people successfully performed these tasks. And at the beginning of the Russian aggression, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defence had available forces and means both in Russia and on their own territory – a ready-made guerrilla movement."

Background:

The New York Times, based on more than 200 interviews with current and former officials in Ukraine, the US and Europe, wrote that the US Central Intelligence Agency maintains 12 secret bases in Ukraine along the border with Russia, and that CIA Director William Burns made his 10th secret visit to Ukraine last Thursday since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

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