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CIA embarked on 'extensive transformation' of Ukrainian intelligence since 2015 — report

These systems were reportedly operated by Ukrainian officers, but all collected intelligence was handed over to the Americans

WASHINGTON, October 23. /TASS/. The CIA embarked on an ‘extensive transformation’ of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) since 2015, The Washington Post reported citing US intelligence officials.

"GUR was our little baby. We gave them all new equipment and training," a former US intelligence official who worked in Ukraine told the newspaper. "[The GUR] was a smaller and more nimble organization [compared to the Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU] where we could have more impact."

According to the report, starting in 2015, the CIA embarked on an extensive transformation of the GUR, "having kind of rebuilt it from scratch" within several years.

In particular, the CIA sent "state-of-the-art surveillance and electronic eavesdropping systems" to Ukraine, including mobile equipment that could have been deployed along Russian-controlled communication lines in eastern Ukraine, as well as "software tools used to exploit the cellphones of Kremlin officials."

These systems were reportedly operated by Ukrainian officers, but all collected intelligence was handed over to the Americans.

According to the report, the CIA has spent "tens of millions of dollars" since 2015 in order to turn Ukrainian intelligence agencies into "potent allies against Moscow."

In addition to the advanced surveillance systems, it "trained recruits at sites in Ukraine as well as the United States, built new headquarters for departments in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, and shared intelligence on a scale that would have been unimaginable" prior to Crimea’s reunification with Russia in 2014.

The CIA maintains a "significant presence in Kiev," the newspaper notes.

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