Secret CIA training program helped Ukraine prepare for Russia spec op
The US has been intervening in Ukraine before Russia's special military operation even took off, as Washington's CIA has been operating in the country for the better part of a decade.
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An instructor trains members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 22, 2022
A secret CIA-run training program in Ukraine helped Kiev prepare for Russia's special military operation in the country, Yahoo News reported on Wednesday.
The US Central Intelligence Agency's program kicked off in 2014 when the conflict in Donbass started, but the Biden administration pulled out all its CIA personnel from Ukraine before Russia started its military operation in the country, the report added, citing former officials.
Washington ran its covert CIA training program from Ukraine's eastern frontlines, and it was made possible through previously existing assets for the agency, which made them illegible to stay without new legal determination, according to Yahoo News.
The report also revealed that the CIA sent a very small number of its paramilitary officers, which did not exceed a dozen, to eastern Ukraine as part of its training program.
The CIA's personnel taught the Ukrainians certain sniper techniques, how to use Javelin anti-tank missiles, means of evading digital tracking used by Moscow to locate troops, and how to use covert communication tools, to name a few, the report revealed.
Russia began a special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, responding to requests for assistance from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics to defend against intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation was solely targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure and the civilian population was not in danger. Russia has repeatedly stressed that it had no plans to occupy Ukraine.
