False information: Russian secret service allegedly lied to Putin before Ukraine invasion
Created: 08/20/2022, 20:13
By: Lukas Einkammerer
The Russian secret service is said to have lied to the government around Vladimir Putin before the Ukraine invasion.
This was the result of investigations by US media.
Kyiv – The situation in the Ukraine war is getting worse.
While explosions erupted over the weekend on the Crimean peninsula, which is under Russian control, Russian troops in the southern interior are said to be coming under increasing pressure.
An end to the invasion, which began in February, is still not in sight.
However, investigations by US media have now revealed that Russian intelligence may have withheld important information from Vladimir Putin in the run-up to the invasion.
War in Ukraine: Intelligence personnel reportedly increased drastically before invasion
After months of investigating intercepted communications and discussions with US, European and Ukrainian authorities, the
Washington Post
has published a number of interesting findings.
These take a deep look behind the scenes of the Ukraine invasion and reveal important information about the early stages of the war.
According to Ukrainian and Western authorities, the presence of the Russian secret service FSB in Ukraine increased drastically in the months before the start of the war.
Around 30 officers were deployed in 2019.
Shortly before the invasion, that number rose to 160.
Many of the pro-Russian agents are said to have apparently not followed the instructions from Moscow, which intended the establishment of a puppet regime, despite being paid.
Research by the US newspaper The Washington Post has revealed that the FSB secret service is said to have lied to Vladimir Putin before the Ukraine invasion.
© dpa/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin Pool
War in Ukraine: Secret service planned housing for Russian personnel in Kyiv before invasion
As the
Washington Post
further reports, citing intercepted communications, the FSB was certain that the Ukraine invasion would be successful and had already procured a number of shelters in the days before.
FSB informants in Kyiv were instructed to leave the keys to their houses and apartments for arriving Russian personnel.
Although the so-called "Department of Operational Information" was active in Ukraine for years to influence the country internally and keep it on the radar of the government in Moscow, this ultimately failed.
According to Ukrainian and Western sources, the secret service either underestimated that Ukraine would defend itself against Russia - or deliberately withheld this information from Vladimir Putin and the government in Moscow.
Ukraine war: secret service is said to have lied to Putin before invasion
What is particularly interesting, however, is that the secret service is said to have deliberately lied to the Russian government.
As the research further reveals, a number of surveys were carried out in Ukraine in the run-up to the planned invasion.
It was apparently clear from these that the Ukrainian population would actively resist a Russian invasion – and not, as the FSB had told the Kremlin, would approve of an invasion and a pro-Moscow government.
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According to a Western security official, the initial invasion plans were fueled by "a lot of wishful thinking."
In the end, however, instead of launching a planned lightning invasion of Kyiv, the FSB agents were forced to withdraw from the city with the Russian military.
Although Moscow now has to answer for the apparent failure of the invasion preparations that have lasted for years, the leaders of the FSB have retained their positions of power and are still involved in the war, according to American authorities.
(le)
