Yahoo News reported that the training program started in 2015
In this photo taken on Monday, Nov. 18, 2019, a Ukrainian soldier takes his front line position at destroyed Butovka coal mine in the town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. U.S.-made X-ray equipment, helmets and missiles make a difference for Ukrainian troops fighting Kremlin-backed separatists on the front line of the 21st century standoff between Russia and the West. So when President Donald Trump froze $400 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, allegedly to pressure the country’s leader for personal political favors, Ukrainians got nervous. (AP Photo/Vitali Komar)
The CIA has been overseeing a secret training program for Ukrainian special operations forces and intelligence operatives since 2015, Yahoo News reported on Thursday, citing five former intelligence and national security officials.
One former CIA official said the US is “training an insurgency” in Ukraine and that the program teaches the Ukrainians how “to kill Russians,” although other officials downplayed the training and said it was not meant for offensive purposes.
The training has been held at an undisclosed base in the southern United States. It was started by the Obama administration, was expanded by President Trump, and further expanded by President Biden. The program includes training in firearms, camouflage techniques, land navigation, and other areas, former officials told Yahoo.
The program was overseen by the CIA’s Ground Branch, the spy agency’s elite paramilitary unit. The Yahoo report said by 2015, Ground Branch personnel were deployed to the front in eastern Ukraine to advise the Ukrainian forces.
In comments to Yahoo, the CIA denied that it has been training a Ukrainian insurgency. But The New York Times reported on Friday that the US is considering supporting an insurgency in Ukraine if Russia invades.
For months now, the US has been claiming Russia is planning to invade Ukraine, an accusation Moscow strongly denies. Russia held talks this week with the US and NATO on Ukraine and other issues, but little progress was made.
The details of the peace deal presented today by US special envoy Steve Witkoff are consistent with the report in the Financial Times discussed in my previous article and with Larry Sparano in the posted interview. Putin will halt the Russian advance prior to driving Ukrainian soldiers out of all of the territory that has been reincorporated into Russia. It appears to be the case that the borders between Russia and Ukraine will be the current front line, so Putin is withdrawing Russia’s claim to the Russian territories still under Ukrainian occupation.
Russia and the US seem near a Ukraine peace deal. Kyiv’s role may be moot.
President Donald Trump’s hopes of securing a quick Ukraine peace deal hang in the balance after Washington’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, held his fourth Kremlin meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday.
