Secret CIA training program helping Ukrainians fight Russian troops, sources say
March 18, 2022 2 Comments
A SECRET TRAINING PROGRAM run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which began shortly after Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014, is now helping the Ukrainians beat back Russian military advances. According to Yahoo News, which revealed the existence of the CIA program earlier this week, the CIA began training Ukrainian special operations forces personnel in eastern Ukraine, starting in 2015. That was only months after the Kremlin sparked a separatist war in eastern Ukraine and the Crimea, eventually pulling them away from the control of Kyiv.
Yahoo news reports that the CIA carried out the training with the help of personnel from the Special Activities Center (SAC, called Special Activities Division in 2015, when the secret program began). The SAC operates under the Agency’s Directorate of Operations. Within the SAC, paramilitary operations and training are carried out by the Special Operations Group (SOG). A small team from SOG, “in the low single digits”, arrived in eastern Ukraine and began training Ukrainian forces in a variety of military and paramilitary techniques.
The news website claims that the Ukrainians were taught by the CIA how to engage in anti-tank warfare, which included the use of American-supplied FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles. They were also taught sniping techniques, as well as how to operate in insurgency formations without being detected by Russian electronic surveillance tools. The CIA program took place alongside a more extensive, US-based training program for Ukrainian special operations forces, which was run by the United States military. That program also began in 2015, according to Yahoo News.
The training program continued for a number of years, according to Yahoo News. In fact, members of SAC/SOG were on the ground in Ukraine in early February, just days before the Russian invasion began. At that time, the administration of US President Joe Biden, expecting a Russian invasion, ordered that all CIA personnel should leave Ukraine, fearing that they could get captured by Russian forces. Yahoo News’ Zach Dorfman said he spoke to “over half a dozen former officials”, who claimed to have recognized CIA-style training in the tactics being employed on the ground by the Ukrainians.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 March 2022 | Permalink
intelNews.org 
Given employment of “CIA style training” by Ukraine’s resistance, I would be curious as how this would differ from traditional CI. The Russians are well aware of any iconoclasm with unusual effectiveness–as demonstrated by your publication of the article. This “sharing secrets with the enemy” while the secrecy remains otherwise is puzzling to most. (OK, you write for “professionals.”)
As I’ve said before in a few places online, it would be a very good idea for NATO and Ukraine to set up a modern version of what Gladio actually was, and I would not be at all surprised if OGA was doing the training, at least for initial train-the-trainer style accelerated courses to build a baseline. Its a lot quieter to do it that way than to send an Security Force Advisor brigade or even a Special Forces command Alpha or Bravo team to do UW or FID.