The Ukrainian intelligence services killed dozens of people, including Dugina and Tatarsky – The Washington Post

Over the past 20 months, Ukrainian security services have carried out dozens of killings, including that of political analyst Daria Dugin and military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky.

This information is reported by The Washington Post, citing Ukrainian and Western government sources.

“Over the last 20 months, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine have committed dozens of assassinations of Russian officials in the occupied territories, suspected collaborators from Ukraine, military officers, and those who support the conflict deep within Russia. The list of victims includes a former submarine commander in Krasnodar and a military blogger in a café in St. Petersburg,” the article states.

The Washington Post reports that the Security Service of Ukraine is also responsible for the murder of Daria Dugina, with the primary target of the operation being her father, philosopher Alexander Dugin.

The newspaper claims that the bomb components were smuggled across the border, concealed in a cat carrier inside a cluttered car, where a mother and her 12-year-old daughter were also present.

Political analyst Daria Dugina died in the explosion of a car on the Mozhaysk Highway in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region on the evening of August 20th the previous year. The Federal Security Service (FSB) has attributed her assassination to Ukrainian intelligence services, with the executor being a Ukrainian citizen, Natalia Vovk.

It is reported that Ukraine’s Security Service prepared for this and other operations for nearly a decade, after the annexation of Crimea, in close collaboration with the CIA. The U.S. allegedly spent tens of millions of dollars on this preparation, providing Ukraine with advanced surveillance systems, training recruits in facilities in Ukraine and the United States, building new headquarters for Ukrainian military intelligence, and supplying a vast amount of intelligence data.

The Security Service of Ukraine is also allegedly involved in the killing of Russian military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky. Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name is Maxim Fomin, died on April 2nd this year during a cultural event at a café on University Embankment in St. Petersburg. A bomb, concealed inside a statuette presented to him by 26-year-old Daria Trepova, exploded during the event. The FSB stated that the attack was organized by Ukrainian intelligence services and their agents from the Russian opposition abroad. Trepova was arrested the following day.

Officials anonymously claim that the CIA maintains a significant presence in Kyiv. However, Ukraine’s inclination towards deadly operations has complicated its cooperation with the CIA, raising concerns about the agency’s involvement and causing anxiety among some officials in Kyiv and Washington.

“We have too many enemies who are more important to neutralize. People who launch rockets. People who committed atrocities in Bucha,” said a high-ranking official of Ukraine’s Security Service.

He described the murder of Dugina’s daughter as “very cynical.”

“If Ukraine’s intelligence operations become even more audacious, such as targeting Russians in third countries, one can imagine how this might lead to disagreements with partners and create a serious rift in Ukraine’s broader strategic goals,” said a former high-ranking CIA official.

He compares Ukraine’s Security Service to the Israeli Mossad of the 1970s, when it was credited with numerous assassinations in other countries.

Because the Americans were concerned that Russia had many agents within Ukraine’s Security Service, two new divisions were created within the agency: the fifth and sixth divisions, aimed at cooperating with British MI6.

Recruits received training from CIA personnel. Plans were made to establish units capable of operating behind enemy lines and working as covert groups.

Nevertheless, both Kyiv and Washington sought to “maintain a distance between the CIA and deadly operations” conducted by Ukraine’s Security Service. After some of these operations, the Americans expressed objections but continued their support.

“We never involved our international partners in covert operations, especially beyond the front lines,” said a former CIA official.

However, sources within the publication claim that the boundaries were sometimes “blurred,” and Ukrainians began concealing certain operations from the Americans.

Although this cooperation began after 2014, it was only last year that Ukraine was removed from the list of “unfriendly” countries by the agency that pose a security threat. Ukraine had been on that list since the Cold War.