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A Ukrainian military intelligence officer is undertaking sabotage missions in Russia that he claims do not have the approval of his superiors, according to this dispatch from south-eastern Ukraine in the Sunday Times.
It comes as the frontlines of the war calcify into something of a stalemate with the onset of bitter winter, boosting the significance of other forms of warfare in Kyiv’s fight against Moscow’s invasion. In this case, without the approval of senior officers.
Mykola is an officer in the main intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s defence ministry. He trains operatives for secret missions in Russia: sabotage, poisonings, assassinations, diversions. He claims they are unauthorised by the chain of command above him.
Last week, he invited me to his training centre in south-east Ukraine, a place so secret that before we even got in his car, I had to switch off my phone and seal it in a bag that blocks out all signals.
Often, when Kostiantyn Grygorenko walks the streets of Izium, he spots people he suspects collaborated with the Russians during the five-month occupation of his home town last year.
He used to feel an overwhelming rush of emotions when he saw them. Now, he tries to conserve his energy and nerves and ignore them. But still, it gets to him.
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