Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, responded to the statements of former adviser to the presidential office, Oleksiy Arestovych about the "failure of the counteroffensive" and the need for negotiations with Russia.
Danilov said on Facebook: "By all indications, the Russian FSB is now making active attempts to form a new agent network, pinning far-reaching hopes on it."
"In the long run, we are talking about the deployment of a political project aimed at the remnants of the pro-Russian population, and in parallel, information intervention is being carried out with attempts at internal destabilisation in Ukraine," he added.
Danilov noted that various "experts", "spy actors" and "other kinds of scammers" have become more active, promoting Russian narratives in Russian.
"It is they who are currently shouting about the 'failure' of the counteroffensive, hinting at the need to revise the goals of the war (and this is no longer a return to the 1991 borders), giving advice on how to fight the Armed Forces, issuing fake insights into 'conflicts' among the military and political leadership, calling for the acceptance of 'good Russians' and ultimately hinting that it is necessary to negotiate with Russia," Danilov said.
He added that Ukrainian law-enforcement agencies are "closely monitoring the manifestations of such hostile actions, identifying and stopping them". He also called on Ukrainians to demonstrate "a high degree of information hygiene in order not to get contaminated with the products of Russian information 'life'".
Recently, Arestovych said on his Telegram channel that the current policy of the Ukrainian authorities is leading to a dead end and that there is no reason to expect "adequate solutions". He also touched upon the topic of a counter-offensive.
After Danilov's statement was published, Arestovych reacted sharply to his words, saying that the NSDC secretary was of little use to the state.