Since the tsar invaded Ukraine this past February, the US-plus-allies maintained that assistance to the Kievan aggrieved will be limited to material/technical support and in no case US/NATO troops will deploy in-country in any other capacity but providing non-combat “advisory” assistance.
In fact, one month before the Russians rolled across the Ukrainian frontier, Ole Joe, speaking to reporters, insisted that “There is not going to be any American forces moving into Ukraine,” adding, however, that any US/NATO ground troops response will depend on “what Putin does or doesn’t do.”
America and her allies, Ole Joe suggested, are justifiably concerned at Russia’s intentions, but, he emphatically reiterated that “We have no intention of putting American forces or NATO forces in Ukraine. But … there are going to be serious economic consequences if he moves.”
With that statement already part of the public record, however, the old man put his foot in his mouth when, shortly after the no-troops-in-Ukraine announcement, told US soldiers in Poland they'd be witnessing Ukrainian bravery with their own eyes once “you’re there.”
It now emerges though that, according to The New York Times, the US plus Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, have already deployed intelligence personnel and commandos inside Ukraine to make for the US withdrawing her 150 military instructors shortly before Putin attacked. The NYT report added that:
Few other details have emerged about what the C.I.A. personnel or the commandos are doing, but their presence in the country — on top of the diplomatic staff who returned after Russia gave up its siege of Kyiv — hints at the scale of the secretive effort to assist Ukraine that is underway and the risks that Washington and its allies are taking.
This allied presence on the side of the Ukrainians has not gone unnoticed by Russian intelligence, especially since there is significant mobility of Ukrainian military personnel leaving the front for emergency training in NATO countries and returning to apply their new knowledge in killing Russians.
The Americans, this NYT report further said, are often “frustrated” at the Ukrainians’ ability to absorb the lessons of NATO training, something that makes their predicament all the more precarious. All in all, however, the newspaper concluded,
Having American trainers on the ground now might not be worth the risks, other former officials said, especially if it prompted an escalation by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Throughout history, wars often emerged from accidents but, also, by deliberate malfeasance perpetrated by the aggressor as, for example, in the case of the Gleiwitz incident, a “black op” orchestrated by Nazi intelligence, which provided Adolf Hitler with the bogus justification to invade Poland in 1939 and trigger WWII in Europe.
Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say
A secretive operation involving U.S. Special Operations forces hints at the scale of the effort to assist Ukraine’s still outgunned military.
As Russian troops press ahead with a grinding campaign to seize eastern Ukraine, the nation’s ability to resist the onslaught depends more than ever on help from the United States and its allies — including a stealthy network of commandos and spies rushing to provide weapons, intelligence and training, according to U.S. and European officials.
Much of this work happens outside Ukraine, at bases in Germany, France and Britain, for example. But even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the massive amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces, according to current and former officials.
At the same time, a few dozen commandos from other NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, also have been working inside Ukraine. The United States withdrew its own 150 military instructors before the war began in February, but commandos from these allies either remained or have gone in and out of the country since then, training and advising Ukrainian troops and providing an on-the-ground conduit for weapons and other aid, three U.S. officials said.
Few other details have emerged about what the C.I.A. personnel or the commandos are doing, but their presence in the country — on top of the diplomatic staff who returned after Russia gave up its siege of Kyiv — hints at the scale of the secretive effort to assist Ukraine that is underway and the risks that Washington and its allies are taking.