CIA-trained Ukrainian paramilitaries may take central role if Russia invades | YahooNews - Jan. 13, 2022 |

While the covert program, run by paramilitaries working for the CIA's Ground Branch -- now officially known as Ground Department -- was established by the Obama administration after Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, and expanded under the Trump administration, the Biden administration has further augmented it, said a former senior intelligence official in touch with colleagues in government.

By 2015, as part of this expanded anti-Russia effort, CIA Ground Branch paramilitaries also started traveling to the front in eastern Ukraine to advise their counterparts there, according to a half-dozen former officials.

The multiweek, U.S.-based CIA program has included training in firearms, camouflage techniques, land navigation, tactics like "cover and move," intelligence and other areas, according to former officials.

CIA trained subversive techniques

The program has involved "very specific training on skills that would enhance" the Ukrainians' "ability to push back against the Russians," said the former senior intelligence official.

The training, which has included "tactical stuff," is "going to start looking pretty offensive if Russians invade Ukraine," said the former official.

One person familiar with the program put it more bluntly. "The United States is training an insurgency," said a former CIA official, adding that the program has taught the Ukrainians how "to kill Russians."

The program, which does not appear to have ever been formally aimed at preparing for an insurgency, did include training that could be used for that purpose. Another former agency official described technical aspects of the program, like showing Ukrainians how to maintain secure communications behind enemy lines or in a "hostile intelligence environment" as potential "stay-behind force training."