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When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it expected to celebrate victory in Kyiv within weeks. But Ukraine not only fought back on its own battlefields but also took the fight against Russia to other parts of the world.
The frontline of the Russo-Ukrainian war now extends into Africa and the Middle East, where Ukrainian special forces have been hunting Russian forces to erode Moscow’s economic resources and influence.
According to a leaked top-secret U.S. intelligence document, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency previously devised plans to attack Russian forces in Syria with clandestine Kurdish assistance in early 2023. The objective behind targeting Russian units in Syria was to potentially compel Russia to redirect its military assets from Ukraine to strengthen its defenses in Syria. Ukrainian officers considered training Syrian Democratic Forces operatives to strike Russian targets with unmanned aerial vehicle attacks.
Leading Ukraine’s charge to fight Russia anywhere where Russians can be found has been Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, who heads the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence. Budanov himself has taken secret missions to attack Russia in the occupied Crimean Peninsula after 2014 and helped kill a lieutenant general from Russia’s FSB security service. Budanov’s agency is separate from Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, much like the FBI and CIA are separate in the U.S. But both Ukrainian intelligence agencies have been responsible for numerous drone strikes inside Russia.