You know the end is nearing in Ukraine when the CIA — i.e., the Director and unnamed US government officials — start dishing on what-we did-in-Ukraine-that-was-so-great. The CIA storyline is simple, this was not our fault. It would be hilarious if this was just a bungled coup where no one died. But that is not the case. There are more than a million dead, mostly Ukrainian, as a result of CIA activities, starting with the Maidan of February 2014.
These are the two articles I want to draw to your attention:
How ‘Mild Bill’ Burns led a covert CIA campaign in Ukraine
How the CIA and Ukrainian intelligence secretly forged a deep partnership
Let’s start with Bill Burns. Here are five salient quotes from this Ignatius puff piece:
“No one would ever refer to CIA Director William J. Burns as “Wild Bill,” the nickname of William J. Donovan, who led the OSS, the agency’s swashbuckling predecessor, during World War II. But the self-effacing Burns has bravely commanded a CIA force in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion nearly three years ago. . . .
“Ukraine has been in many ways Burns’s war, more than for any other U.S. official. He warned Kyiv and the world in late 2021 that the Russians were coming by sharing highly sensitive U.S. intelligence. His CIA officers stayed on the ground after the Russian invasion began and after U.S. diplomats and military personnel had departed. They have been at the front for nearly three years, sharing intelligence to help Ukraine target Russian invaders. . . .
“Burns was perhaps fated to meet Putin on the battlefield in Ukraine, in a war he has seen coming since 2008. But the conflict has become a brutal war of attrition beyond what even Burns could have imagined: The CIA estimates that Russia has suffered more than 700,000 casualties over the past three years, 10 times what it lost in Afghanistan over a decade. Burns sees little chance that Putin is ready for any deal that isn’t a Ukrainian capitulation. . . .
“The closest Burns has come to a public description of what he encountered in his travels to the front came in testimony to Congress on March 12. He described how he was briefed on the battle of Avdiivka, a painful defeat for Ukrainian forces who were starved of supplies. He recalled how a Ukrainian commander told him: “Our men fought as long and hard as they could, but we ran out of ammunition. And the Russians just kept coming.” One Ukrainian brigade had just 15 artillery rounds a day for its 2,500 men before it was forced to withdraw. . . .
‘The terrible thing about this war is that Burns has seen it coming in slow motion since he was ambassador to Moscow. When Burns presented his credentials, Putin warned: “You Americans need to listen more. You can’t have everything your way anymore.” He amplified that in a 2008 meeting: “No Russian leader could stand idly by in the face of steps toward NATO membership for Ukraine. That would be a hostile act toward Russia,” Putin said.”
This is a classic move by Burns, getting a reporter known for being a CIA-stenographer to write a hagiography about his role in the disastrous Ukraine operation filled with misleading and inaccurate information. For starters, Burns, according to Ignatius, couches the CIA role as, intelligence sharing. It was nothing of the sort. I believe the CIA was heavily involved in helping the Ukrainians craft and execute information operations (aka propaganda), the training of terrorist hit teams and the training and equipping of Ukrainian special operations forces for operations inside Russia. This included gathering intelligence on sites that were subsequently targeted with missiles and drones.
We now have firm confirmation that the casualty numbers Donald Trump has been citing this week come from the CIA. Ignatius writes:
“The CIA estimates that Russia has suffered more than 700,000 casualties over the past three years, 10 times what it lost in Afghanistan over a decade.”
This is intelligence malpractice. It is a tacit admission that the CIA is simply parroting casualty figures it receives from Ukraine. The blame for this incompetence rests with Burns. Instead of being spoon-fed by the Ukrainians, he could have demanded that analysts use a combination of Open Source Intel and imagery of new graves in Russia to produce a more accurate number. The lie about Russian casualties has been used to deceive Congress and the American public about the true nature of the war.
Burns’ account of the battle of Avdiivka provides indirect evidence for the disproportionate Ukrainian casualties. Burns recounted a conversation with a Ukrainian commander:
“Our men fought as long and hard as they could, but we ran out of ammunition. And the Russians just kept coming.” One Ukrainian brigade had just 15 artillery rounds a day for its 2,500 men before it was forced to withdraw. . . .”
We have know for more than two years that Russia had between a six-to-one and ten-to-one advantage in artillery shells. And this does not include Russia’s decisive advantage with tanks, drones, missiles and glide bombs. The side with the most firepower inflicts the most casualties. Simple. You do not have to be a graduate of an Ivy League school to figure that out.
The ABC article reveals a different kind of deception and disinformation. It pretends that CIA’s involvement in Ukraine only started after the Maidan coup in February 2014:
“Lt. Gen. Valeriy Kondratyuk had come to Washington, D.C., with a mission: to persuade American intelligence agencies to trust him.
“It was 2015, a year after Russia had seized Crimea and started a war in eastern Ukraine. It was still six years before Russia would move to its full-scale invasion, but the front-line in eastern Ukraine still smoldered amid a poorly observed ceasefire agreement. General Kondratyuk was the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency. Convinced Ukraine’s future was with the West, he wanted the United States to help strengthen his agency to better hold off Russia. But so far he had found American intelligence wary.
“To change that, he believed he needed a bold gesture. That was why his luggage was stuffed with top-secret Russian military documents.”
What a bunch of hokum! All Kondratyuk had to do was share this with the CIA Chief of State (COS) in Kiev. But that ain’t dramatic enough. Got to embellish the story.
Almost missing from the ABC account are the actions of the CIA and the UK’s MI-6 in fomenting, funding and arming the Ukrainians (and Georgians) who instigated the violence that led to the departure of Ukraine’s elected government. No mention whatsoever of CIA’s long history — it started with Operation Red Sox in the late-1940s — of using Ukraine as a base to attack Russia. However, ABC reports that the CIA and MI-6 were involved in the actions that led to the Maidan coup:
“On the spot, Nalyvaichenko said, he decided that night to call the U.S. and British embassies directly from his abandoned office, and to ask for help.
“The Americans and British quickly agreed, according to Nalyvaichenko, setting up a training program in combat tactics for SBU officers. That was the beginning.
“We could feel a palpable change on the Ukrainian side,” said a former U.S. official. “There were those of us on the agency side who were like, ‘Hey, this is something to exploit. We need to change with it. Let’s help, you know, the Ukrainians be Ukrainians.’”
And exploit they did. So, why publish this story now? Here’s the ABC explanation:
“Some of the former American and Ukrainian officials said they were speaking out now because they believed it was vital for American lawmakers to understand the benefits the partnership that Kondratyuk first helped build has brought to the U.S. as well as Ukraine.
“This is something that the American Congress needs to know. What they have done as a service — and what Valeriy [Kondratyuk] has done personally — has saved the U.S. taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe even billions of dollars,” said a former U.S. official.”
Nonsense. This is CIA trying to cover-its-ass before Ukraine collapses. ABC tries to put lipstick on the CIA’s efforts:
“From 2016, the collaboration picked up speed. The CIA started providing secure communications technology, as well as training to Ukrainian officers in combat and espionage tactics. Ukrainian officers were brought to a European country for field training with officers from the CIA and Britain’s MI6, according to Kondratyuk. The training included how to operate as a case officer in Russia and in occupied Ukraine. . . .
“The CIA also eventually helped Ukraine equip a dozen forward-operating bases along the Russian border, from where the Ukrainian officers gathered intelligence, monitoring Russian communications and sometimes launching covert operations, according to Kondratyuk and former U.S. officials. . . .
“Such officers made up a new commando unit trained by the CIA, called Unit 2245, that would become known for its audacious operations behind Russian lines and overseas, according to Kondratyuk. An officer from the unit, Kyrylo Budanov, is now the head of HUR. . . .
“The CIA and Ukraine also established a training program, called “Operation Goldfish”. The name derived, Kondratyuk said, from a post-Soviet joke about an untrustworthy Russian-speaking fish.
“The program trained Ukrainians to pose as Russians, not only in Russia but in third countries around the world in joint operations with the CIA. The Ukrainians were able to pass as Russians, creating remarkable opportunities for access and recruitment, former Ukrainian and U.S. officials said.”
Why does an intelligence organization disclose this highly-classified program now? To avoid blame and lay the responsibility for the debacle at the feet of the Ukrainians.
When Russia invaded in 2022, the Biden administration lifted many of the restrictions on the CIA’s operations in Ukraine, according to current and former U.S. officials. The article confirms what I and others, including Ray McGovern, Scott Ritter, Doug MacGregor and Danny Davis, have long argued: The CIA played a major role in Ukraine’s attacks on Russia. ABC reports:
“CIA officers were authorised to remain in Ukraine as Russia attacked. They were still not permitted to directly kill Russians, but they were now authorized to assist Ukraine with targeting information. . . .
“When Russia invaded in 2022, the Biden administration lifted many of the restrictions on the CIA’s operations in Ukraine, according to current and former U.S. officials.
“CIA officers were authorised to remain in Ukraine as Russia attacked. They were still not permitted to directly kill Russians, but they were now authorized to assist Ukraine with targeting information.
“As Russian columns advanced over the border, CIA-trained HUR special forces units, operated behind the lines, sending intelligence on Russian troop movements and attacking them. Ukrainian agents had also planted explosives on train lines and logistics points and left weapons caches inside Russia and occupied Ukraine.”
But ABC, without an inkling of irony, concludes its piece with this nonsense:
“Putin has publicly long insisted Ukraine is controlled by the CIA and was becoming a beachhead for NATO forces, using the claims as justification for his invasion. Some have alleged the CIA partnership with Ukrainian intelligence was a provocation to Putin, giving him a pretext for the war.
“Kondratyuk, who arrived in Washington all those years ago with luggage full of secrets, dismisses those claims, describing them as Russian propaganda. Putin, he said, invaded Ukraine because he wanted to dominate it.
“This is just Russian propaganda, manipulation in order to somehow justify this inhuman and terrible invasion of another country,” he said. “Our cooperation did not provoke. It only strengthened our ability to resist Russian aggression.”
Hello? The ABC report, taken as a whole, confirms Putin’s claim. While Konddratyuk may be a convenient scapegoat, the facts show that once he disappeared from the scene the CIA operations escalated and that the CIA committed acts of war against Russia.
Let me suggest another reason the CIA officials who were the source for this article are sharing this information — they are trying to sabotage Donald Trump’s promise to negotiate an end to this war. A war provoked by the West.
Larry C Johnson is a Managing Partner of BERG Associates, former CIA Officer and State Department Counter Terrorism official.
