Russia plotting terrorist attacks on NATO soil to undermine military aid to Ukraine - intel

Russian special services are aiming to hand over some units of Western-made weapons, captured in combat in Ukraine, to extremist organizations on the territory of NATO allies for the latter to carry out terrorist attacks – all to undermine Western defense assistance to Ukraine.

That’s according to Oleksandr V. Danylyuk, head of the Center for Defense Reforms, coordinator of the interdepartmental platform for countering hybrid threats, operating within the framework of Ukraine-NATO cooperation, who cited a source in Ukrainian intelligence, Ukrinform reports, referring to Guildhall.

“According to the information available to Ukrainian intelligence, Russian special services are preparing acts of provocation in order to undermine international military and technical assistance to Ukraine. In particular, the Russians are preparing to ship Western weapons that they seized in Ukraine, including in Mariupol, to a number of extremist organizations for them to carry out acts of terror, including on NATO soil,” he said.

“U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Richard Mills also spoke about the threat of Russian provocations, noting that Russia tries to seize American weapons in Ukraine and is interested in handing it to rogue actors in order to support its own disinformation about the lack of control over arms being provided to Ukraine by the United States,” summed up Danylyuk.

On December 8, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee rejected a bill put forward by the Trumpist wing in GOP to audit all aid provided to Ukraine.

In early December, the Czech Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that the Kremlin was trying to spin the false narrative of arms smuggling from Ukraine, in order to weaken international support for Kyiv.