Without the stupid paywall:
I wonder haw difficult sabotage operations like this are? For sure they have some info from Americans. And on the other hand, how difficult is for Russians to do the same?
Ukraine has pulled off a couple operations like this already. I am sure there is no shortage of people in Russia that have had family die in the war while also not getting any financial compensation for it. There are probably a dozen other motivators as well. Hell, a train tunnel got bombed a while ago close to China, after all.
There have been some reports of spies getting caught in Ukraine. The reports have mostly been about informers or Russians trying to recruit others into their network. I don’t recall anything about bombings, though. Maybe about 2 months ago, there was an attempt to poison one of the Ukrainian Sr. military leaders I believe.
None of those operations are easy. Money, phones, explosives and other supplies need to be smuggled around. There is always the risk of double or triple agents. Technology has brought an entire new layer of complexity to this, I am sure.
Russia has been in the spy game for a long time. Ukraine was part of the USSR for a long time, so there are probably a few ex-KGB still living there supporting Ukraine. It’s a real spy-vs-spy game, for sure.
The CIA has been camped in Ukraine for a while as well, even before the invasion. They are probably still feeding Ukraine data.
With all that said, it’s probably a hyper-complex situation and I can only speculate.
Yeah, there are many motivators for Russians to inform for Ukraine, like you said. In Ukraine the are many people that consider themselves more Russian than Ukrainian and they could spy for Russia, but Im thinking most of them don’t really want to end up in Russia either.
The “fireworks” factory also produced ammunition. Pretty much right after the explosion, photos emerged that showed shell casings flung everywhere by the explosion.
Here’s hoping Zakharov was in his office and was blown apart in the attack. Anyone who helps Russia continue this travesty of a war deserves a similar fate as the orks on the ground.
