The American newspaper The Washington Post, in the second article of a series of publications on the outbreak of war in Ukraine, spoke about the role of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in developing an unrealistic plan to overthrow the government in Kyiv with lightning speed and Moscow’s plans to install a puppet government. The investigation was published on Friday, August 19.

“Analysts (FSB. – Ed.) incorrectly assessed Ukraine’s resistance potential or correctly assessed it, but were unable or unwilling to convey a serious assessment to Vladimir Putin,” WP writes, citing conversations with many interlocutors in Ukrainian and Western intelligence services. “fundamental and strategic” Russian intelligence

“FSB agents were so confident that they would soon control the levers of power in Kyiv that they spent the final days before the war setting up shelters in informer apartments and other places for the planned influx of personnel,” WP writes.

The FSB insisted on a lightning attack on Kyiv

According to the publication’s interlocutors, it was the FSB, “adhering to erroneous assumptions, that insisted on a war plan based on the idea of ​​a lightning attack on Kyiv and the overthrow of the government in a matter of days”. Before the invasion began, the FSB even told its informants in Kyiv to leave the capital, but leave their house keys.

“Russian intelligence failures in Ukraine appear to be more systematic and have been marked by unreliable sources and lack of incentive to tell the Kremlin the hard truth,” WP writes. The secret service “fueled” Putin’s dismissive attitude towards Ukraine with the help of assessments compiled to please the Kremlin, the publishing state’s interlocutors.

FSB polls show lack of pro-Russian sentiment in Ukraine

WP interlocutors in Western intelligence were unable to explain why the FSB believed in pro-Russian sentiments in Ukraine, given data that refutes this illusion.

An April 2021 poll by the FSB-affiliated Social Service Research & Branding showed that 84% of Ukrainians would consider any invasion by Russian troops an “occupation”, and only 2% of the population called such a scenario a “liberation”.

Almost half of the country’s citizens – 48 percent – were ready to defend Ukraine in the event of aggression. Despite this data, the FSB “continued to feed the Kremlin with ‘pink assessments’, WP interlocutors are surprised. “The feeling that they would be greeted with flowers came from the FSB,” said one of the sources. knows whether the results of these polls were transferred to the president of the Russian Federation, journalists say.

Plans to install a puppet government

“When they started on February 24, the task was to take Kyiv. They hoped this would lead to a domino effect that would spread across the country. First they would take the central government and then strengthen their presence in the regions,” said a source. Ukrainian military to the WP.

As part of that plan, the FSB has proposed two options for pro-Russian puppet governments, according to the publication’s interlocutors among Ukrainian officials. The first “government” was located in Belarus and was formed around former President Viktor Yanukovych. The second group, which included former members of the Yanukovych government, was formed in southeastern Ukraine. It included former Party of Regions member Oleg Tsarev.

According to the WP, the main “voice” convincing Putin that “Zelensky is weak, his government will collapse and the Ukrainian people will welcome Russian forces” was the leader of the “Opposition Platform – For Life” and godfather of Russian President Viktor Medvedchuk, who was in direct contact with Putin. According to WP interlocutors, the plan did not work, not least because Zelensky refused to leave Kyiv.

The head of the FSB Bortnikov was not punished for the failure in Ukraine

The Operational Information and International Relations Service, headed by Sergei Beseda, is responsible for the Ukrainian direction of the FSB. In the summer of 2021, the staff of the FSB unit specializing in Ukraine increased from 30 to 160 people. To attract recruits from other special services units, they were given bonuses and free housing in buildings adjacent to the FSB Academy on Michurinsky Prospekt in Moscow, WP writes, citing Ukrainian intelligence.

Despite the information that Beseda was fired or even arrested after the failure of the special services in Ukraine, WP interlocutors in Western intelligence doubt this. According to the newspaper’s interlocutors, they did not see any information that suggested that any of the Russian intelligence leaders faced such consequences.

“We have good reason to believe he is still working,” a senior US official said of Besed. Furthermore, according to the official, there are no signs that the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, is being blamed for his agency’s shortcomings.