How a group of Ukrainian civilians helped seal Russia’s biggest defeat | – #group #Ukrainian #civilians #helped #seal #Russias #biggest #defeat

Kherson, UkraineFebruary 9 (Reuters) – Ukraine whose intelligence supervised the invasion of Kherson last fall Russia He wanted to confirm that Federal Security Service (FSB) officers were staying at a small hotel in a back street in the southern port city.

The civilian who secretly provided target coordinates and information about enemy operations in Kherson and the surrounding region was assigned the code name Dollara, the operative said.

Reuters in Kherson after the city was captured in early November Dollar and conducted extensive interviews with two other members of the underground guerrilla network.

Their separate accounts information and behind enemy lines of sabotage operations Ukraine how to coordinate with intelligence services, of Ukraine offers a rare window into operations still underway elsewhere.

Although Reuters could not confirm the specific events they described, USATwo officials said covert operations involving intelligence officers, ex-servicemen and hobbyists helped expedite Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson. February 24 is the first anniversary.

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He declined to be named for security reasons Dollar said he started driving at the Ninel Hotel with his wife, who was part of the network and used the Ukrainian code name Kosatka for killer whale – Lenin spelled backwards.

A pair of gun-wielding security guards, regularly seen outside the hotel, were led to believe that FSB agents were inside; Dollarsaid that he sent his observations to his manager at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

Ukrainian SBU and Russia The FSB did not respond to requests for comment on Dollar’s account or other guerrilla operations. Ministry of Defence did not respond to requests for comments.

Before dawn on October 5, Ukrainian media and regional deputy Serhii Khlan FacebookIn the hotel that wrote that two FSB officers and seven Russian soldiers died explosion happened.

“I got an SMS (text) that said, ‘Look and how’s Hotel Ninel doing,'” Dollar recalled, taking Reuters to look at the broken hole. “I went and replied, ‘No more Hotel Ninel.’

Reuters could not review the text message. Dollar and other partisans regularly stop their conversations for security reasons and social they say they deleted the media.

Dollar and Kosatka, according to a photograph seen by Reuters on December 1, which shows the inscriptions of Ukraine received decorations from Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov saying thanks for “cooperation with the armed forces”. Dollar said that the other two members of the four-person cell, Mart and Koliya Reznikov decorated by

When asked about the resistance operations in the occupied territories, the official of the General Intelligence Service of Ukraine (GUR) said that “the local population supports” and refused to reveal the details of the specific activities.

Several Ukrainian and Russia Operations to target Russian security forces and disrupt their plans are ongoing in eastern and southern Ukraine, which is controlled by Russia and its allies, according to officials installed by the IDF, as well as members of the Kherson guerrilla group.

The Institute for the Study of War also reports that a guerrilla war is being waged in Melitopol, Tokmak and Mariupol in the south of Ukraine, and in Donetsk and Svatove in the east.

Serhiy Haydai, the exiled governor of Eastern Luhansk province, which has been under Russian control since last June, said that guerrillas there are conducting sabotage operations and attacking suspected Russian operatives.

In an interview on January 23, he recently mentioned the iron used by the Russian army to transport troops and equipment. way attributed the attack to the partisans. He declined to provide further details for security reasons, and Reuters could not independently confirm the involvement of guerrillas in the attacks.

REAL GUERRILLA

Dollar said that imprisonmentquestioning, torture and partisans in Kherson at the risk of death blue-yellow of Ukraine national hung the colors on the trees, Google They transmitted Russian positions on Earth and other online maps to Ukrainian security officials.

Vitaly Bogdanov, 51, a member of the regional council, said that during the eight-month Russian occupation, he collected information for law enforcement agencies in Kiev, which he later used to launch investigations into suspected collaborators.

“We are a lot of people crime we were able to start the work,” he said. He declined to provide further information as the investigation is ongoing.

Kolia, who was part of the four-man Kherson cell, said the group was told by its handlers not to use firearms because information is a more powerful weapon.

Other partisans also took up arms.

In Crimea occupied by Russia attorney Alexei Ladin told Reuters that he was defending two Ukrainians held there and accused by the FSB of violent attacks against Russians.

Ladin said that Pavlo Zaporozhets served in the Ukrainian army from 2014-17 and was a member of the Ukrainian GUR during the occupation of Kherson. military joined the intelligence.

Ladin said that Zaporozhets Russia military when attempting to attack a night patrol imprisonment was made and he was charged with international terrorism for life imprisonment awaiting punishment.

Zaporozhets is being held in a detention center in Simferopol, he said, and he and his attorney had an initial meeting via video link on February 2 in the Russian port city of Rostov-on-Don. court participated in the meeting. Court He decided to transfer Zaporozhets to prison. facility in Rostov, Ladin said.

According to an FSB account seen by Reuters, Zaporozhets, then 31, was arrested by FSB officers in Kherson on May 9 with two grenades, fishing line and two plastic bottles from which he had made improvised bombs.

Responding to a Zaparojets inquiry, the Ukrainian GUR said it contacted an employee code-named Optium and received 30,000 hryvnias ($800) per month, according to FSB business documents seen by Reuters. USA dollar) said that he agreed to fulfill their orders.

Ladin said the FSB account was based on statements he obtained while being tortured during interrogation by an agent, and showed Reuters a copy of a handwritten note from Zaporozhets last August in which he described being beaten and electrocuted while in custody.

While some details of the FSB account were true, Ladin said the FSB falsely accused Zaporozhets of deliberately targeting civilians as well as night patrols. Ladin said that military the operation had to be carried out in order to prevent civilian casualties during the curfew.

Ladin said the “optimal solution” would be to exchange Zaporozhets and another client, Yaroslav Zhuk, who was arrested in Melitopol in June and accused of setting off a homemade bomb, with Russian prisoners held by Ukraine. Juk denies attacking civilian targets, Ladin said.

Ladin said that FSB Zaporozhets a prisoner refused to recognize him as a Ukrainian serviceman with the right to change and said that the defense could not verify the document confirming his status. In the Juk case, Ladin says his client is a combatant covered by the Geneva Convention; The FSB did not accept the appointment.

Reuters could not speak directly to the two prisoners.

ESCAPE FROM KHERSON

Dollar, Kolia and Mart – another member of the cell – said they were forced to resist the Russian takeover of Kherson because their city lacked an organized defense when the Russians attacked on February 24.

Dollar and March’s first public overture against the Russians came on March 1 when they drove a truck loaded with concrete blocks toward the city’s main entry point, the Antonovsky Bridge, in an attempt to slow the Russian advance.

Fearing that the invaders were already in the city, they turned back.

Dollar considered his options: organize a civil disobedience movement, take up arms, or gather intelligence.

His friends put him in touch with an SBU officer. Dollar and Kolia, an old friend, collect and transmit information about the Russians and pensioners the police officials, former SBU officials, retirees and others agreed to form a network.

Kolia, an experienced hunter who knew the village of Kherson, asked local villagers for information, including an old woman who counted Russian caravans while milking her cow.

Between reconnaissance raids, the pair would meet with sources at a cafe to gather intelligence.

One in summer farmer Koliya gave the location of a Russian truck-mounted missile launcher, known as Tochka-U, around the village of Muzykivka, about 12 km (7.5 miles) north of Kherson. Dollar said he passed on the information.

Next day farmer Koliya reported that there was a hole in the road just where the truck stopped, Dollar said. Reuters could not independently confirm the attack.

Kosatka, Dollar’s wife, said that she hired her own data network. Kosatka declined to comment for this story.

WEATHER PORT

At the same time, March of April 10Kherson International in Chornobaivka Weather Visiting people living near the port, he called on them to send information about the movement of Russian troops, both in person and on Telegram. He codenamed his five-man cell Miami. Reuters did not review the conversations that March said it had deleted.

Russian forces established their headquarters in the three-square-kilometer airport complex, which was repeatedly bombed by Ukrainian forces in March.

Kyiv said that a large number of Russian soldiers, including at least two general perished aircraft and ammunition depots were also destroyed. Moscow withdrew its military equipment in October.

March and the Dollar, Russia’s losses as it grew, some members of the cell that March recruited became overconfident and began to take more risks.

When the Russians arrested four of the Miami members in late August, March feared they would give him away. Reuters could not determine what happened next to the four members.

March fled to the village of Vasliyevka in Zaporozhye Oblast, the only crossing point where the Russians allowed Ukrainian civilians to cross into Ukrainian-controlled territory, and then went to Kyiv.

Kherson free Despite this, Dollar said he and Kosatka will continue to help the resistance until Ukrainian troops retake Crimea, where the couple owns an apartment.

“For me, the end of the war will be when I return to my apartment,” he said.

Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Tom Balmforth; Edited by Mike Collett-White and Suzanne Goldenberg

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

2023-02-09 10:22:34
Source – reuters

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