Ukraine helped Syrian rebels to overthrow Assad - Washington Post
Photo: Ukraine helped Syrian rebels overthrow Assad (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Syrian rebels who came to power in Damascus received drones and other support from Ukrainian intelligence officers seeking to undermine Russia and its Syrian allies, The Washington Post reports.
According to the agency's knowledgeable sources, Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 experienced drone operators and about 150 FPV drones to the rebel headquarters in Syria's Idlib 4 to 5 weeks ago to help Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the leading rebel group based there.
Kyiv's assistance played only a modest role in the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to Western intelligence sources. But it was notable as part of a broader Ukrainian effort to covertly strike at Russian operations in the Middle East, Africa, and within Russia itself.
Preparation
As author David Ignatius points out, Ukraine's covert assistance program in Syria was no secret, although senior Biden administration officials have repeatedly claimed they were unaware of it. “Ukraine’s motivation is obvious: Facing a Russian onslaught inside their country, Ukrainian intelligence has looked for other fronts where it can bloody Russia’s nose and undermine its clients,” the article says.
The Ukrainians have announced their intentions. The Kyiv Post in an article on June 3 quoted a source in Ukraine's military intelligence service, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, as telling the agency that “since the beginning of the year, the [Syrian] rebels, supported by Ukrainian operatives, have inflicted numerous strikes on Russian military facilities represented in the region.”
The article included links to video footage showing attacks on a stone bunker, a white van, and other targets that were hit by Ukrainian-backed rebels in Syria. The article stated that the operation in Syria was carried out by a special unit known as the Khimik (Chemist in Ukrainian - ed.) within the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, “in collaboration with the Syrian opposition.”
Russian officials have been complaining about the actions of Ukrainian paramilitary forces in Syria for several months.
Not only Syria
The operation in Syria is not the only case where Ukrainian military intelligence is operating abroad in pursuit of Russian criminals. In August, Ukraine helped rebels in northern Mali to ambush Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group. The attack on July 27 killed 84 Wagner operatives and 47 Malians.
Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, said a few days later that the Malian rebels received the necessary information and not just information that allowed for a successful military operation against Russian war criminals. After the attack, Mali severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine.
In April 2023, Budanov promised that Ukraine would prosecute Russians guilty of war crimes in any part of the world.
Syrian rebels overthrew dictator Barash al-Assad in a lightning offensive, who was forced to flee and is now hiding in Russia. In Moscow, Assad was granted asylum by his ally Putin.
