USA, media confirm central role of China in the crisis in Ukraine

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) maintains a permanent presence in Ukraine and plays a major role in conducting the war effort in Kiev against Russian forces, but it cannot predict the decisions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This is what the US weekly "Newsweek" affirms in a long article that lifts the veil on the real extent of US intelligence involvement in the conflict: a "clandestine war" which would also have the function of avoiding uncontrolled escalations.

According to the weekly, which cites "over a dozen" anonymous intelligence officials, the CIA "took a central role in the conflict before it even began". In January 2022, a month before the Russian invasion, the CIA would have acted as an intermediary between Washington and Moscow to establish a series of shared "rules": during an already known visit to the Kremlin by the director of the agency, William Burns, the Russia would have pledged not to extend the conflict beyond the borders of Ukraine and to avoid the use of atomic weapons; in return, President Joe Biden's administration would ensure that Kiev "would not take any action that could directly threaten Russia or the survival of the Russian state". Based on the agreements between Washington and Moscow, it would be up to the United States to ensure compliance with these commitments.

In the following months, however, the CIA would not be able to fully control the actions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the bombing of the Kerch bridge and the drone attacks on Russian air bases in Crimea and against the Kremlin, according to the weekly, they would have eroded Moscow's trust in the commitments secretly undertaken by Washington, and this would load the conflict with dangerous unknowns. This would explain, among other things, the warnings from Moscow regarding the use of nuclear deterrent.

US intelligence - writes "Newsweek" - "is as uncertain of Volodymyr Zelensky's intentions as of those (of Russian president) Vladimir Putin ”: “With the attack on the bridge in Crimea, the CIA has realized that Zelensky is not in full control of his own armed forces, or willfully ignores some of its actions”. Nonetheless - specifies the weekly - the CIA continues to play an essential role in the field for the maintenance of the Ukrainian war apparatus: officers of the US intelligence agency "are constantly found" in Ukraine, and their activities range from training and assistance in the use of Western weapon systems up to the exchange of information and intelligence with the Ukrainian secret services.

The CIA operates a "grey fleet" of commercial aircraft carrying weapons and materiel from central and eastern Europe to Ukraine, and agency agents "enter and exit Ukraine on covert missions to assist in the use of the new weapons and systems", limiting the only limit to avoiding direct contact with the Russian forces. The coordination of this vast "clandestine war" would take place in Poland. The sources cited by the weekly specify that "Washington and Moscow have decades of experience in defining these clandestine rules", and this has led to a progressive enlargement of the CIA, which has assumed the role of "spy, negotiator, intelligence supplier, logistics operator , manager of a network of sensitive NATO relations and, most important of all, guarantor of the maintenance of the war” within the pre-established limits.