According to an investigation by The Washington Post, Russia’s Federal Security Service allegedly prepared at least two puppet governments before Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. The FSB allegedly worked with key political actors in Kyiv, including former president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in 2014, and Ukraine’s most prominent pro-Kremlin politician, Viktor Medvedchuk, to prepare future cabinets in case Kyiv quickly fell. into Russian hands.

According to an analysis by The Washington Post, the FSB’s first mistake in the war in Ukraine was the introduction of several officers into Ukrainian institutions, with the help of which they wanted to guarantee the fall of the government in Kyiv. quickly and in this way it will be possible to establish leadership under the influence of Moscow.

Although this branch of Russian intelligence has been trying to buy off pro-Russian politicians for years to prevent Ukraine from leaving Moscow’s orbit.

Western intelligence officials say the FSB did not expect the Ukrainians to resist the pressure and did not inform Russian President Vladimir Putin of its failure to persuade Ukrainian officials.

Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, secret service officers were very confident that they would seize power and asked informants in Kyiv for details of houses and places they could use in the Ukrainian capital from where they could carry out their operations, the Security Service of Ukraine reports quoted by The Washington Post.

Russia has been preparing the ground for an invasion of Ukraine for several years

Russia has long been preparing an invasion of Ukraine, given the fact that the network of infiltrated spies has grown significantly since 2019 on the eve of the war, from 30 officers to 160, who were distributed in several regions of Ukraine, officials are quoted as saying. according to the estimates of the American edition.

Russian intelligence has also formulated two possible puppet governments in anticipation of the fall of Kyiv, among Moscow’s main allies, including former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Medvedchuk, the oligarch who heads Ukraine’s main pro-Russian party.

Russia brought Yanukovych to Belarus at the start of the invasion to be ready to take power after a quick takeover of the capital, which Vladimir Putin dreamed of and FSB officers were very confident about.

Former party members of Yanukovych would be ready to take over the leadership of Ukraine, brought in at the beginning of the invasion of the territory in the south of the country, captured by the Russian army.

Even though the plans of the Russian intelligence services were turned upside down and Vladimir Putin’s blitzkrieg plans failed, the leadership of the FSB remained in place and the Kremlin leader did not clean up the top of the Russian intelligence services after mistakes that led to what everyone believed to be a colossal loss for , the second army of the world.

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