Pro-Russian Infiltrators Are Ready to Pounce Should All-Out War Begin, Ukrainian Officials Warn

[dalton99a]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pro-russian-infiltrators-are-ready-to-pounce-should-all-out-war-begin-ukrainian-officials-warn-11645537392

Pro-Russian Infiltrators Are Ready to Pounce Should All-Out War Begin, Ukrainian Officials Warn
Kyiv has spent eight years purging its army and intelligence agencies of potential turncoats, but many remain
By Yaroslav Trofimov and Alan Cullison
Feb. 22, 2022 8:43 am ET

KYIV, Ukraine — If Russia launches an all-out war with Ukraine, one of its most dangerous weapons will already be in Kyiv: a network of potential turncoats and moles that Moscow has cultivated for decades within Ukraine’s military, intelligence and security forces.

That network is certainly much smaller than when the conflict began in 2014 with Russia’s grab of Crimea and covert invasion of the eastern Donbas region. At the time, two successive commanders of the Ukrainian navy switched sides to Russia, handing over most of the fleet, as did key security officials across the south and the east.

Since then, counterintelligence investigations, purges of people with Russian government connections and the promotions of combat veterans of the war against Russian-backed forces in Donbas have significantly reduced Moscow’s infiltration, Ukrainian authorities say.

“The Russian intelligence network operating here has been installed a long time ago. We haven’t yet eliminated all of it, there is more work to do,” said Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s national security adviser. “Their mission from the Moscow center is simple: destroy, destroy, destroy. They have no other mission except destroying us as a nation.”

Russia has massed some 190,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders, preparing for what U.S. officials say is a wide-scale invasion that seeks to topple President Volodymyr Zelensky and replace him with a new, pro-Russian government.

[Irish_Dem]

1. "network of potential turncoats and moles that Moscow has cultivated for decades"

Same thing Putin has done here in the US.

[dalton99a]

2. Yep.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Putin helps the GOP get elected, in return the GOP uses Russian

talking points to divide the US and create chaos. This weakens the US and allows Putin to invade Ukraine.

[SheltieLover]

4. All around the world actually