Leaked Pentagon documents revealed that Kiev intelligence planned attacks on Russian military sites and fuel tanks in Syria, using the US occupation-backed QSD militia.
According to a leaked top-secret U.S. intelligence document, last winter, Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate put in motion strikes on Russian troops and Wagner forces in Syria, before the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky directed a halt to the operations, the Washington Post newspaper said.
The newspaper noted that “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky directed a halt to the planning in December, but the leaked document, based on intelligence gathered as of Jan. 23, lays out in detail how the planning progressed and how such a campaign could proceed if Ukraine revived it.
The newspaper added that the document indicated details how officers of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s military intelligence service, could plan deniable attacks that would avoid implicating the Ukrainian government itself.
“Attacks on Russian forces in Syria might raise the threat level to the point where the Russians would need to call in reinforcements, which could help the war effort back in Ukraine, “said Aron Lund, from the think tank Century International.
During planning in December, the document states, Ukrainian military intelligence officers favored striking Russian forces using unmanned aerial vehicles and starting “small,” or possibly limiting their strikes.
According to the documents, the Ukrainian officers considered training operatives of member from the QSD militia to strike Russian targets and conduct “unspecified ‘direct action’ activities along with UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] attacks.
The document indicates that Turkey was aware of the planning, and that it is unlikely that Kiev will revive the plans, or impose large costs on Russia in Syria without support from the United States.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency