Who Supports Ukrainian Nationalism?
As soon as World War II ended and the Nazis were defeated, US intelligence agencies built ties with former Hitler collaborators to work together against the Soviet Union and then Russia. The operation to form an armed underground movement in Western Ukraine was dubbed 'Aerodynamic'. The CIA assembled war criminals and Bandera movement activists from filtration camps, and created an agent network. Their task was to sabotage nuclear plants and dams on Ukrainian territory in an effort to separate it from the Soviet Union. They terrorised civilians and were responsible for at least 35,000 casualties, according to CIA co-founder Frank Wisner.
In the early 1950s, Red Army units mostly wiped out the nationalist insurgency, however the CIA employed a new strategy. Since then Ukrainian nationalists have been engaged in an ideological anti-Russian war. The operation ‘Prolog’ gradually stoked nationalist sentiment in Ukraine and bred loyalty to Nazi ideas. What is the outcome of half-century-long American influence?