UK's MI6 Prepared Ukrainian Sabotage Unit to Be Sent to Africa - Source

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, has prepared a sabotage unit of 100 Ukrainian fighters to be sent to Africa to counter Russia-Africa cooperation, a military-diplomatic source has said.

"According to information confirmed by several sources, the British intelligence service MI6 has formed and prepared for deployment to the southern continent a sabotage and punitive detachment consisting of militants of Ukrainian nationalist and neo-Nazi formations to counter the development of cooperation between African countries and Russia," the source said.

The source added that Kiev, at the request of London in July 2023, ordered that Ukraine's Security Service and the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) "provide maximum and prompt assistance to representatives of the British intelligence MI6 and SAS special unit in the selection of 100 fighters from the Ukrainian national formations with significant combat experience on the 'eastern front.'"

One of the main tasks of the unit in Africa will be "sabotage of infrastructure in African countries, as well as the elimination of African leaders oriented towards cooperation with Russia," the source added.

The unit is planned to be sent to Africa by "a chartered civilian ship from the [Ukrainian] port of Izmail to the [Sudanese] city of Omdurman during the second half of August," the source said.

GUR officer Lt. Col. Vitaliy Prashchuk, who has experience of "successful liquidations" and participated in MI6 operations in Zimbabwe, will head the unit, the source said.

A native of the Vinnytsia Region, Prashchuk participated in combat operations in the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions in 2014-2016, as the commander of a sabotage and reconnaissance group, which had several "successful liquidations" under its belt. In 2015, he joined the 73rd Ukrainian Marine Special Operations Center and served in intelligence until 2017. He participated in joint special operations run by Ukrainian and British intelligence services in Zimbabwe.

After his discharge in 2019, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian parliament) from Volodymyr Zelensky’s "Servant of the People" party. At the beginning of the Russian special military operation, he was a reserve intelligence officer.

Last November, the Grayzone, an independent news site, citing documents and pieces of correspondence, reported that British spies had inked an agreement with the Security Service of Ukraine to train a Ukrainian "guerrilla terrorist army" to organize acts of sabotage in Crimea.

The same individuals who advocated building an army of "guerrillas" were responsible for hatching plans for an attack on the Crimean bridge: NATO Secretary General's Advisor Chris Donnelly, British Foreign Intelligence Service (MI6) officer Guy Spindler, and former Lithuanian Defense Minister Audrius Butkevicius.

Initially, the Ukrainians were supposed to be instructed at the Yavorov training area in the Lvov region of western Ukraine. Then, a decision was made that the fighters would be trained in Greece and Poland.

British special forces have been involved in secret operations in at least 19 countries since 2011, including Russia and Ukraine, a study in May conducted by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a London-based non-profit organization, revealed.

In Ukraine, British agents conducted reconnaissance and trained fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine together with US spy agencies, the authors of the document revealed. This data on the British special forces’ clandestine missions raises questions about the transparency and legal basis of their activities, the organization noted.

According to the AOAV, the list of countries where British special forces were secretly deployed to includes Estonia, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Russia, and Ukraine. In addition, British special forces have trained in Oman, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia. The full list of countries where their activities have been carried out is likely to be much broader, the non-profit added.