On the anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion, the head of the Defense Ministryʼs Main Directorate of Intelligence (MDI) Kyrylo Budanov planned to strike deep in the Russian rear, but the attack was postponed due to concerns of officials in Washington.
The Washington Post writes about this with reference to a secret report of the US National Security Agency.
According to the document, Budanov ordered one of his officers to "prepare for mass strikes on February 24... with everything the MDI has." They considered, in particular, a naval attack using TNT in the port city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea coast.
Meanwhile, Washington was secretly monitoring the plans of the Ukrainians. Two days before the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, on February 22, 2023, the CIA released a new classified report. It said that the MDI "agreed to Washingtonʼs request to postpone strikes" on Moscow. However, the document did not explain who exactly intervened and why the Ukrainians agreed to the US proposal.
Journalists of The Washington Post note that the US and European officials express their admiration for Budanov in private conversations. But at the same time, they admit that his audacity sometimes makes them nervous.
On February 13, the day Budanov allegedly instructed one of his officers to be ready for an operation in Novorossiysk, the United States again called on its citizens to leave Russia immediately. Whether this warning was related to the alleged Ukrainian attack is currently unknown.
The documents also say that American intelligence agencies are monitoring Budanovʼs communications, and it appears that this is not news to him. In past interviews with The Washington Post, the head of the MDI, presumably knowing he was being spied on, would turn on music or static noise in his office.
Secret documents also show that the Central Intelligence Agency developed plans for secret attacks on Russians in Syria with the help of the Kurds and planned to hit the PMC "Wagner" mercenaries in Mali.
"It is not known at what stage the operations [in Mali] are now and whether the MDI has received permission to carry out its plans," the US National Security Agency document says.
American and European officials have made remarks to Ukraine about attacks outside its territory, which they believe have gone too far. They are also concerned that China may view Ukraineʼs attacks against Russia as "an opportunity to expose NATO as the aggressor" and increase its support for Russia.
- On April 6, it became known that classified military documents related to the counteroffensive of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the war against Russia were published on social networks (Twitter and Telegram), and on April 7, it became known that a second batch of secret documents of the American authorities was published online.
- They are talking not only about Ukraine, but also about the activities of the USA in the Indo-Pacific region, in the Middle East, actions to fight terrorism and relations with China, about the UN, Hungary.
- Documents from the Pentagon began to appear on the Internet as early as January 2023 on some Discord servers where video game fans chatted. On April 13, the FBI arrested a suspect in the leak of classified Pentagon data — 21-year-old National Guardsman of the US Air Force Jack Teixeira.