Over the past two months, Moscow has activated a dormant spy network in Ukraine. In this way, the Russian president is trying to further destabilise society, National Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov told The Times.
According to him, sleeper Russian agents embedded in state institutions, including the SBU, have been ordered to undermine the country's unity. Danilov believes that they understand that they cannot win militarily, so attempts at internal destabilisation have become a priority.
According to him, the Russians want to use the "so-called tension" between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyy to drive a wedge between the political and military leaders. He claims that the enemy has also tried to spread anti-state sentiment among the population.
In particular, Russian agents allegedly targeted female relatives of Ukrainian soldiers and POWs, and sought to spread anti-war rallies (as is known, rallies of relatives of servicemen were held in several cities of Ukraine, calling for the settlement of the issue of demobilisation - LB).
Russia has stepped up its spies after the small territorial gains it made on the eastern front during its summer and autumn offensive. Danilov said Putin is desperate to achieve tangible success in the war before March 2024, when Russia is due to hold presidential elections.
Asked where the newly activated sleeper agents were going, Danilov replied: "We made a big mistake in 1991 when we did not close the KGB, but simply changed its name to the SBU, and the KGB metastases remained."
He added that when Viktor Yanukovych was president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014, the SBU was heavily infiltrated by operatives from the Russian FSB.
"Unfortunately, we recognise that we have not been able to cleanse all security systems. Therefore, of course, there are traitors there," he said, recalling the former head of the Crimean SBU office, Oleh Kulinich, who is accused of treason.
The NSDC Secretary recently made his second foreign visit since the full-scale invasion, to London. There, he met with various security and military officials, including Admiral Sir Anthony Radakin, the Chief of Defence Staff.
"We discussed how we were going to win this war," he said.