Ukraine ‘called off attack on Russian capital’ at US’s request
The US warned Ukraine off conducting a highly provocative strike on Moscow on the anniversary of the war, the latest leaked Pentagon papers have revealed.
Kyiv’s military intelligence followed Washington’s orders and postponed the strikes, according to a tranche of classified documents seen by the Washington Post.
Ukraine’s head of military intelligence (HUR), who is in charge of operations on foreign soil, instructed officers to prepare for “mass strikes” on February 24 this year, with “everything the HUR had”.
Plans for strikes on Russia by Ukraine are likely to have made officials anxious in Washington, as the US has publicly warned that the weapons they supply to Ukraine should not be used to hit targets across the border.
On February 22, two days before the anniversary, the CIA dispatched a classified memo informing US officials that the HUR “had agreed, at Washington’s request, to postpone strikes” on the Russian capital.
The incidents coincided with Russia placing air defences on buildings in Moscow, in a sign they were anticipating a strike on home soil.
Limited success of intervention
Washington’s intervention ahead of the anniversary of the war had only limited success.
Just a week after the anniversary, Russia accused Kyiv of attempting drone strikes on infrastructure within its borders, including near the capital.
The CIA memo noted that while the HUR had agreed to postpone its strikes, there was “no indication” Ukraine’s security service (SBU) “agreed to postpone its own plans to attack Moscow around the same date” .
The HUR oversees operations on foreign soil, however the SBU, which reports directly to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, also conducts special operations.
According to the documents, among the plans the HUR were considering was a TNT strike in Novorossiysk, a port city on the Black Sea in southern Russia, the Washington Post reported.
The sea-based strike would be largely symbolic, but would demonstrate Ukraine’s ability to hit deep within Russian territory.
