12 secret bases created: NYT reveals how the CIA helps Ukraine fight Putin

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency maintains 12 secret bases in Ukraine along the border with the aggressor country of Russia. The secret bases help to monitor the actions of the Russian armed forces, listen to the conversations of the Russian military, and collect other important information.

This is stated in the article by The New York Times entitled "Spy War: How the CIA Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Vladimir Putin". Journalists write that they interviewed about 200 current and former officials in Ukraine, the United States, and Europe.

The officials said that the CIA has been working with Ukraine for more than a decade. This cooperation "has turned Ukraine, whose intelligence services have long been considered compromised by Russia, into one of Washington's most important intelligence partners in the fight against the Kremlin."

At the same time, according to journalists, CIA Director William Burns paid a visit to Ukraine last Thursday. It was his tenth trip to the country.

As noted, 12 underground data collection points have been set up along the Russian border over the past eight years. Two more have recently been built.

Analyzing the partnership between Ukraine and the CIA, the publication writes that Ukrainians have repeatedly demonstrated their capabilities, for example, by collecting intercepted data that helped prove Russia's involvement in the downing of a Malaysian Airlines plane in 2014.

Ukraine also helped the Americans identify Russian agents who interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.

The New York Times has learned that in 2016, the CIA began training an elite Ukrainian special forces unit known as Unit 2245, which captured Russian UAVs and communications equipment so that CIA specialists could rework them and break Moscow's encryption systems. According to the newspaper, one of the officers in this unit was the current head of the GRU, Kyrylo Budanov.

The CIA also helped train a new generation of Ukrainian spies who worked in Russia, throughout Europe, Cuba, and other places where Russians have a significant presence.

According to The New York Times, the details of the partnership between Ukrainian and American intelligence agencies have been a closely guarded secret for a decade.

"These intelligence networks are more important now than ever as Russia goes on the offensive and Ukraine becomes increasingly dependent on sabotage and long-range missile strikes that require spies far behind enemy lines. And they are increasingly at risk: if Republicans in Congress cut off military funding for Kyiv, the CIA may have to cut back on its activities," the article says.

According to the newspaper, the partnership between the CIA and the GUR began in late February 2014, when former President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia. At that time, a new paramilitary unit was created and deployed behind enemy lines to conduct operations and gather intelligence that the CIA or MI6 could not provide.

Starting in November 2021, the CIA and MI6 sent Ukraine messages that Russia was preparing for a full-scale invasion. The intelligence, among other things, listed the names of Ukrainian officials whom the Russians planned to kill or capture, as well as Ukrainians whom the Kremlin hoped to put in power.

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