Thread by @ZimermanErik

The thread being long enough, could not fit all I would have wished. But let me add a last and important point. After the release of this information, we learned of two high level dismissals in the Ukrainian government. #Zelensky fired the First Deputy Secretary of the National

https://twitter.com/ZimermanErik/status/1551727049533964288

Security and Defense Council Ruslan Demchenko. As part of the Council, which among other tasks coordinates security matters and advises the president, he very well may have been involved in clandestine matters such as this operation. He also worked as deputy minister of foreign

affairs. Perhaps more tellingly Zelensky also fired the commander of Special Operations Forces (SSO), Hryhoriy Halahan. Until 2016 these units were under the Chief Directorate of Intelligence (HUR / GUR), and so are highly correlated with this kind of operation. The SSO includes

psychological warfare units and can be regarded as special forces (Spestnaz) of military intelligence. An operation such as the one Bellingcat and Christo Grozev, aiming at the defection of Russian pilots and their planes to Ukraine, would be right up the alley of the SSO.

Note the full quoted thread, including the follow up comments which may not display by default (

https://twitter.com/ZimermanErik/status/1551733403313127426

). The dismissals on top of all the other evidence add up to a very compelling story. In addition we have the dismissal of the head of the SBU, Ivan Bakanov bout

a week ago. Bakanov is a childhood friend of Zelensky and his dismissal, under Article 47 (for "Non-performance... caused human casualties or other serious consequences or created a threat for such consequences...") was quite a surprise. Though a clarification was later issued

stating that Bakanov was suspended rather than dismissed pending an inquiry, it was weak medicine to what was an obvious break of trust. At the time, Zelensky pointed to what amounted to Russian infiltration of too many operatives as the reason. We do not know for how long UA has

known that the operation had been turned on them. It is reasonable to think that if it became clear to them about 1-2 weeks ago, the Russians waited that same amount of time until they were certain the double agent operation had run its course (since UA now knew), and then tied

up loose ends and released the information today. If this is the case, Bakanov's firing was the immediate and drastic response to the revelation. The clarification stating that it was a suspension rather than a dismissal was the action of cooler heads once they realized that

perhaps it would just blow over without too much damage, and when that hope was dashed with the release of the operation by Russian sources today, the dismissals of the two other high level covert-related officials followed. We of course do not how how many lower level people may

have been dismissed as well. The correlation of this counter-intelligence operation with the sudden spree of high level dismissals makes more sense. Imagine the president and others being kept abreast of an upcoming huge coup, the defection of Russian pilots along with their

state-of-the-art warplanes, only to then be told that it appears that the FSB was playing them all along. Of course this is speculation, but whether the SBU chief's dismissal was related to this or only today's dismissals were, together they are further evidence that despite

what the UA government, Bellingcat, and the parrot mainstream media will attempt to spin, it seems Russian intelligence easily toyed with an amateurish attempt at luring some of their best fighters into treason. As I stated from the beginning, regardless of the details of the

cloak-and-dagger stuff that may have occurred, the Ukrainian operation failed because of their misconception of treason (they are obsessed with accusing their own, Russian, citizens with treason) and the motivations of the Russian soldier that opposes them in the field.