Russian infiltration of Ukrainian military complicates Canadian training mission - National Post

Ukrainian soldiers guard their position in the village of Berdyanske, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, April 14, 2015. Pro-Russian operatives are believed to have infiltrated throughout the Ukrainian military.
AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka [photo]

Matthew Fisher
Analysis
Training Ukrainians to fight pro-Russian separatists may turn out to be a far more complicated business for the 200 Canadian soldiers Ottawa announced Tuesday it is sending to Ukraine than it is for the nearly 70 Canadian trainers now on a similar mission in Iraq.
The reason is that Russian intelligence operatives of every kind have so deeply compromised the Ukrainian military that almost nothing they say or do remains secret for long, according to a recent paper for the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Citing unclassified, mostly Russian sources in his essay, “Brothers Disunited: Russia’s Use of Military Power in Ukraine,” Roger McDermott warned of the “penetration of the Ukrainian state intelligence apparatus, the SBU or Security Service of Ukraine by Russian intelligence agencies including GRU (Russian Military Intelligence), the FSB (Federal Security Service and the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service).”
The infiltration of the Ukrainian military does not only involve formal intelligence operatives. Ukrainians sympathetic to Moscow are believed to be working inside or close to almost all Ukrainian military units, making all aspects of the conflict — including training for war — that much harder for those assisting the Ukrainian side...Continue reading, video...