A Ukrainian intelligence agent appears to have acted against the president’s orders Volodmir Zelenskyy and carried out an attack on a Russian surveillance plane in Belarus in February, according to an intelligence document from the USA leaked on Discord and recently discovered.
The strike reportedly took place even though the agent was ordered to withdraw from the country after Zelenskyy expressed concern that an attack on the plane could result in Belarus joining the ranks Russia’s war against Ukraine.
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The new details were previously unreported and appear in an undated intelligence document that has been marked as classified but has not been independently verified by the New York Times.
The document appears to be an intelligence briefing prepared by the National Security Agency’s National Security Operations Center.
Part of the document says that Vasil Maliuk, recently appointed head of Ukraine’s intelligence agency, initially wanted to use an “antimissile defense system” to attack Russian planes in Belarus. But then he decided to use drones for the attack, noting that the secret service, also known as the SBU, had an agent there.
The document said Maliuk assured Zelensky and his chief of staff before the attack that if no Belarusians were injured, it would be considered “legitimate sabotage against the Russians.” However, the president and his top adviser are concerned that an attack would give Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko “a reason to join Russia’s war against Ukraine,” the document said.
After hearing this, Maliuk called off the attack. However, it happened anyway, and Maliuk later claimed that an agent in Belarus “made his own decision to attack the plane,” the document said. He then assured Zelenskyy and his chief of staff that the SBU had been ordered not to carry out the attack and that he was unlikely to be linked to the agency.
After the incident, a Belarusian opposition group released edited footage captured by a small drone as it landed at the site and then took off again. A second drone video shared on Telegram shows the drone landing on the same plane when the transmission suddenly stops.
security breach
The videos point to a major security breach at the Machulishchy airbase south of the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
Russia has fewer than a dozen warning and control aircraft in its air force, and they are essential in supporting Ukraine’s air operations. Although the Belarusian opposition group initially said the plane was badly damaged, a Times analysis of satellite imagery after the attack showed the damage was limited to the sensitive radar screen.
Satellite images and video released by the Belarusian Defense Ministry showed the plane left the military base days after the attack, possibly to fly to Russia for repairs.