Document:Appendix A Ukraine Indicators and Warnings
| Ukrainian officers tells British colleagues their opinions |
Ukrainan view of Russian/separatist tactics and strategy by Integrity Initiative dated 26 02 2016Subjects: Ukraine, Russia, separatists
Example of: Integrity Initiative/Leak/5
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Ukraine Indicators and Warnings.
Appendix A
Contents
Ukraine Indicators and Warnings.
The following is based on the observations made by the visiting Ukrainian delegation in Jul 16. What is clear is that the former KGB and GRU officers amongst them recognised many of the longer term indicators at the time and as and when they were happening as they had participated in similar examples themselves.
Strategic and longer term IAW.
At the start of the conflict:
The observable presence of „little grey men‟.<a href="#fn1">[1]</a> That is FSB2 organisers working to motivate dissent amongst labour forces, students etc. In other words, not the activists themselves, but those who are creating and advising them3.
The activation of „sleepers‟ and sleeper cells within key government ministries etc.
A doubling in size of the number of FSB and GRU officers in the Russian Embassy.
- The Embassy went from 7 covert handlers to 13 covert handlers in Jul 13.
Economic bullying and disruption of markets, not just oil and gas but for example to Ukrainian vegetable exports to Russia (an action which led to old Soviet style shortages in Russia)4.
The activation of the Russian HUMINT collection groups in Ukraine was observed in Dec 13.
The arrival of “non local” Russian units on the borders of Ukraine, particularly those with better equipment5.
During the conflict:
The creation of special HUMINT groups in the territory to be occupied. The creation of specific agent networks in key terrain to occupied.
This is done by the FSB6.
- One of the aims will be to create „agents of influence‟ in communities to be overrun.
- To intimidate and on occasions to assassinate the anti Russian local leadership.
- To organise the cacheing of arms, explosives and pre--=produced propaganda literature for the Cossacks and other activists.
The creation of operational „pauses‟ by the agreement to resume talks, the Minsk agreement and so on7.
Operational and medium term IAW.
At the start of the conflict:
IAW from agents in Rostov, Belgorod etc.
Direct evidence of visual reconnaissance from May –– Jul 13.
Simulated movement of tps during Ex ZAPAD 13. This exactly mirrored the distances and obstacles in the Ukraine8.
The withdrawal of all non essential personnel and Embassy families etc in the six weeks before the seizure of the Crimea.
The deployment of Black Sea fleet units in the same timeframe.
Construction of dummy camps and the placing of noise machines simulating troop movements near borders etc.
During the conflict:
SF non--military info ops conducted by means of special info ops and active operations
- These actions will deliberately be undertaken at the junction of competencies of law enforcement and the other security agencies.
- The aim well be simply to cause chaos and to damage morale.
The announcement of provocations, violations of the ceasefire, arms limitation measures etc.9
„Humanitarian‟ relief convoys –– In reality large scale military resupply10 and for propaganda purposes with local civpop. Carefully designed by GRU/Spetsnaz but implemented by the Regular Army.
Tactical and short term IAW.
At the start of the conflict:
During the Crimean operation short term IAW included the bringing in of football „hooligans‟11 from the Astrakhan football club and other „ultras‟ all from cities in Southern Russia such as Voronezh12 to act as the core of the demonstrators in Sevastopol etc and to intimidate the local populace particularly if it was pro--Ukrainian. These football hooligans were controlled on the ground by the „little grey men‟. The use of Cossacks and other mercenary units to blockade Ukrainian military sites. These were managed by Spetsnaz personnel.
During the Crimean operation the use of the „little green man‟ using amongst other specialist equipment personal mobile phone and emcon jammers, individual frequency hopping radios etc. These were „Spetsnaz‟ troops and acted as the visible media image for the Russians.
During the conflict:
The Russian front is organised in three lines13. If the third line moves closer to the front for example within Ukrainian counter battery range, then it is a clear indicator that an attack will take place in front of that position.
Russian CI improves in the run up to Ops and this is detectable by the Ukrainians.
Increased rear area security and checkpoints behind a front from which an attack is about to be launched.
On occasions improved EMCON and a more rigid control over the use of private mobile phones has been noticed.
Disruptive attack on C3 systems or relatively shallow „raids‟ in the depths of front line positions to disrupt front line units and to identify defences14.
Harassing mobile phone calls to personnel in front line units of the “Johnny you are going to die” nature.
„Maskirovka‟ using radio emitters to create fake threats and units on parts of the front which are not going to be attacked has itself become a short term IAW.
- Maskirovka if detected is an IAW
The Russians man the front line on a rotational basis. They tend to mount their attacks with fresh and recently trained troops, so a period of troop rotation is always a higher risk period.
Local civpop on the Russian side of the line always know where and when an attack is going to occur and report this to the Ukrainians. The appearance of Russian journalists from example „Russia Today‟ is always a clear indicator that an offensive will occur15.
During the actual engagement Russian journalists are tasked to go to key sites by telephone. This can be tracked.
An indicator that any planned Russian attack has failed is that the Minsk agreement is immediately activated.
Footnotes
1 These „little grey men‟ actually led the actions of the football hooligans and ultras etc and hence were also a short term indicator.
2 These are very scarce commodities and perhaps numbered 10 - 20. This is the „Wimpel‟ unit and in the USSR days these formed part of Directorate C of the 1st Main Directorate of the KGB.
3 As an example of how scarce these assets were, the two former officers from Directorate 1 estimated that there had been 10 such agents in the UK.
4 This included a wide range of agricultural produce such as chicken and cheese.
5 Traditionally units in the Southern MD have lagged behind the Western MD in the issue of new equipment such as T-90.
6 This is the task of the former Directorate S in the KGB days.
7 This was exactly as with the Croats during the Balkan wars and for the same reason. As in WW II the Russians cannot maintain a continuous offensive and so there assaults take a wave form.
8 The original Russian plan had been to occupy the whole of Eastern Ukraine up to the Dnestr.
9 Russian propaganda at the theatre level is controlled by the Special Operations Group (SOG) who also control the Spetsnaz. 10 This was a technique used in Afghanistan on a regular basis and one of the officers had taken part in such operations. The convoys were organised and led by officers from the FSB/GRU. The majority of the truck drivers i.e. those not GRU were regular army officers stripped out from logistics units.
11 This was described by the Ukrainian former KGB as a standard operational technique for an „Active Operation‟ abroad and they gave a number of examples of other opperations where this technique had been used.
12 So as to have similar if not identical accents.
13 The three lines are generally; front line mercenaries and locally eastern Ukrainian recruited forces (with Russian advisors), second line regular Russian forces, third line MVD troops so as to ensure no desertions etc e.g. 45th AB Regt of the Felix Dherzinski Div.
14 These were described as „probe strikes‟ by the Ukrainians.
15 The Ukrainians track the Russian journalists by mobile phone location etc and identify their deployment plan in advance of them arriving so as to give themselves greater warning time.
