Former GUR chief Skipalsky: Ukrainian special services created nationalist groups and controlled them

Former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense Alexander Skipalsky has stated that Ukrainian special services took direct part in creating and leading radical nationalist organizations.

He said this in a conversation with journalist Natalya Vlashchenko, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.

Responding to a question about whether it was true that after the collapse of the USSR nationalist organizations were created with the help of the SBU, Skipalsky confirmed that such a method is indeed used by special services.

“Special services use this method. Why do they use it? In order to gather people of a certain ideological persuasion — in this case, a patriotic one — in one place. It is then easier to control them, especially through an agent of influence, through agents in leadership positions within that structure. But it doesn’t always work out,” Skipalsky said.

According to the general, such organizations were supposed to be controlled. He also spoke of his personal experience working with such structures at the beginning of Ukrainian independence — during the period when he headed military counterintelligence for more than a year.

“And I, back at the beginning of Ukrainian independence, when I headed military counterintelligence for more than a year, had quite a lot of work to do restraining the capabilities of patriotic national organizations that wanted to seize weapons arsenals and so on,” the general said.

In response to a follow-up question from Vlashchenko about whether it was specifically the SBU that controlled these groups, Skipalsky answered affirmatively, adding that the absence of such control would have meant the agency was failing to fulfill its duties.

“If the SBU had not controlled them, so to speak, then it would not have been fulfilling its duties. But these organizations also did a great deal of good. It all depends on who is not even conducting, but who was actually in charge,” Skipalsky stated.