[Goose]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world...a-war.html

Unfortunately it is behind a paywall. However https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28664 supposedly give a summary of the NYT article. Most of what is being said is unsurprising. However, you can be sure "CIA" is a collective term for groups that are not at all part of the CIA. It is also probable that the "bases" referred to in the article are staffed wholly by Ukrainians. They may have US "visitors" but they don't stay long. MI6 was referenced, but I would suspect the BND and the VZ have tentacles in Ukraine too. It is often the case what one reads in the paper about intelligence activities is there for a reason.  In this case I think it is obvious that Ukraine wanted to make very clear they are providing valuable intelligence as a "partial payment" for the help they are getting. That doesn't make it false, but it often makes it only partially true :-).

Another interesting article is the following:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-winni...59611.html

As a disclaimer I don't much respect Petraeus. He was a "Jedi Knight" who for a while became a low grade Darth Vader. However, he does "know some things" and expresses them quite well at times. The one I really like from the above:

BERGEN: The Biden administration and Congress have already sent around $75 billion in aid to Ukraine. Why should Americans spend more on funding the Ukrainians?
PETRAEUS: Because it’s in our fundamental national security interest. It’s in the interest of our prosperity and the rules-based international order that we and our allies and partners in the wake of World War II established, which, for all of its imperfections, generally furthered our interests and those of our allies and partners.

Other countries – Russia and its various confederates around the world – are trying to make the world safe for autocracy, not safe for democracy, and our interests and those of our NATO allies and the free world are defended now at the Ukraine-Russia border.

This is not charity. What we do around the world is not out of the goodness of our heart. It’s out of a cold calculation. It is in our national interest to do so, and that if we do not do so, conditions in the world will change in ways that will not be positive for either our national security or our national prosperity.

[Goose]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world...a-war.html

Unfortunately it is behind a paywall. However https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28664 supposedly give a summary of the NYT article. Most of what is being said is unsurprising. However, you can be sure "CIA" is a collective term for groups that are not at all part of the CIA. It is also probable that the "bases" referred to in the article are staffed wholly by Ukrainians. They may have US "visitors" but they don't stay long. MI6 was referenced, but I would suspect the BND and the VZ have tentacles in Ukraine too. It is often the case what one reads in the paper about intelligence activities is there for a reason.  In this case I think it is obvious that Ukraine wanted to make very clear they are providing valuable intelligence as a "partial payment" for the help they are getting. That doesn't make it false, but it often makes it only partially true :-).

Another interesting article is the following:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-winni...59611.html

As a disclaimer I don't much respect Petraeus. He was a "Jedi Knight" who for a while became a low grade Darth Vader. However, he does "know some things" and expresses them quite well at times. The one I really like from the above:

BERGEN: The Biden administration and Congress have already sent around $75 billion in aid to Ukraine. Why should Americans spend more on funding the Ukrainians?
PETRAEUS: Because it’s in our fundamental national security interest. It’s in the interest of our prosperity and the rules-based international order that we and our allies and partners in the wake of World War II established, which, for all of its imperfections, generally furthered our interests and those of our allies and partners.

Other countries – Russia and its various confederates around the world – are trying to make the world safe for autocracy, not safe for democracy, and our interests and those of our NATO allies and the free world are defended now at the Ukraine-Russia border.

This is not charity. What we do around the world is not out of the goodness of our heart. It’s out of a cold calculation. It is in our national interest to do so, and that if we do not do so, conditions in the world will change in ways that will not be positive for either our national security or our national prosperity.