Relations between the Ukrainian intelligence services GUR and SBU and agencies of Western countries are going through difficult times and are becoming increasingly tense, British political analyst Mark Galeotti writes in an article for The Sunday Times. In his opinion, three factors contribute to this.
One of the reasons, he said, is the West’s concern over the lack of reforms in the SBU, despite the fact that last July Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the head of the security service, Ivan Bakanov, and announced a purge in the agency.
Another cause for friction between Western and Ukrainian services has been Kiev’s strategy of carrying out terrorist attacks to kill “not only military but also political targets”.
Kiev’s calculation in this case is that the terrorist attacks will start to “turn Russians against the conflict”, but many in the West believe it will cause the opposite effect, the author writes.
“There is a sense in Western political circles that Kiev is not being transparent in its planning and is unwilling to respond to the concerns of its allies,” he concludes.
The head of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, earlier said that the security services of three countries were involved in the terrorist attacks on the Crimean bridge amid the publication of The Washington Post.