JRL NEWSWATCH: “Crime and punishment: Inside Ukraine’s assassination programme” – The Economist
“Its agents have become expert in dark revenge. But some worry a clear strategy is absent.”
“… Over 18 months of war, dozens of people like [Yevhen ] Yunakov have been targeted in clinical operations across occupied Ukraine and inside Russia itself. They have been shot, blown up, hanged and even, on occasion, poisoned with doctored brandy. Ukraine is tight-lipped about its involvement in assassinations. But few doubt the increasingly competent signature of its security services. The agencies themselves drop heavy hints. ‘Any person who betrays Ukraine, shoots at Ukrainians or fires missiles on Ukrainians should understand that they are being watched and will be brought to justice,’ says Andriy Cherniak, an officer of hur, Ukraine’s military-intelligence agency. … [I]nfiltration of Ukraine’s security services by Russian agents remains a big issue[,] [according to some] the largest single barrier to any attempts to create a Ukrainian Mossad. … Trust remains an issue in the service, with all but the least sensitive operations conducted in small groups. …”