The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has established itself as one of the most effective and dangerous secret organizations on a global scale. This is stated in a large-scale analytical material by the authoritative British publication The Telegraph, published in the context of the ongoing intelligence war between Kiev and Moscow.
According to military experts and analysts cited by the media, four years of intensive innovation and daring operations behind enemy lines have transformed Ukrainian intelligence beyond recognition, changing the strategic balance of power.
Experts at The Telegraph define The SBU as an “exceptional hybrid organization“. It has successfully inherited and broken the ruthless craft of former Soviet structures, combined it with the surgical precision and audacity characteristic of the Israeli Mossad, and upgraded all this with modern surveillance technologies and massive intelligence exchange with Western allies.
Last year's operation “Cobweb”, in which Russian strategic bomber bases thousands of kilometers inside the Russian Federation were hit, is cited as an emblematic example of the service's capacity. Such strikes on the Kremlin's blacklist demonstrate a scale of planning and imagination that few thought possible before the start of a full-scale conflict.
The British publication emphasizes that while much of Europe is still engaged in theoretical debates about defense strategies, the men and women of the SBU are giving practical lessons in unconventional warfare. The newspaper notes that the operational thinking of Ukrainian agents resembles the spirit of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) of World War II - a combination of engineering ingenuity, civilian innovation, software development and enormous personal risk.
The conclusion of the analysts is categorical: history will probably prove that intelligence warfare in the shadows is no less important than direct clashes on the front line. The lessons of the SBU on how imagination and determination can achieve strategic effects that go beyond conventional military power should be studied in detail by every NATO member state.