On February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: the United States and NATO are developing the territory of Ukraine as a theater of potential military operations.

They do not spare money for this: as RT reported, the United States has provided $ 3.3 billion in assistance to Kiev over the past eight years, more than half of which is for military purposes.

But not only the United States is helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

“We called on other countries to also support Ukraine, to provide it with their assistance,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in an interview back on February 20.

Fueling the conflict

The UK is one of those countries.

The Conflict Prevention, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), sponsored by the UK intelligence community, has provided Ukraine with £61.3 million over four years (approximately 7.2 billion rubles).

The funds were directed to the fight against corruption, military reform and training of Ukrainian military personnel. 

The amount of aid has grown every year.

So, from April 2017 to March 2018, Britain allocated £13.5 million for similar tasks. In 2018-2019 - already £14.02 million, in 2019-2020 - £17.43 million. 

In 2020-2021, London allocated £16.7 million to Ukrainian projects.  

“The UK is helping Ukraine defend itself against external aggression and maintain territorial integrity by providing defensive … training to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAF), including in terms of logistics, medicine, terrain orientation and general infantry skills,” says the CSSF report on the direction of funds funds. 

Under the source of "external aggression" Britain means Russia.

“The Foundation has brought together the efforts of various UK government departments in the field of defense, security, diplomacy and development to support Ukraine in countering the full range of Russian hybrid threats, including propaganda and disinformation.

Britain's support for Ukraine has increased since the 2014 crisis, the documents say.

“This was followed by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and fueling the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine.” 

Britain also mentioned in the report its sponsorship of the OSCE monitoring mission, which monitors compliance with the Minsk agreements and violations of the ceasefire agreements.

Since July 2020, the mission has counted 98,000 such violations. At the same time, Moscow has stated dozens of times about non-compliance with the required restrictions by Ukraine. 

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The masks have been torn off

The Russian Foreign Ministry was also concerned about the presence of Western instructors in the Donbass, which the department last announced at the end of December last year.

As of February 2022, at least 100 British military specialists are present in Ukraine, media reported.

According to the annual report of the CSSF, 19,000 Ukrainian servicemen have been trained by them and their colleagues. 

It is known from open sources that British military specialists also trained the Georgian Legion.

This is the name of the battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, formed mainly from ethnic Georgians who are not citizens of Ukraine.

The Legion gained notoriety: RT spoke in detail about the methods of warfare practiced by the Legionnaires.

Because of this, in 2018, information even appeared that the unit was quietly disbanded. 

However, on February 21, 2022, the Euronews TV channel published footage of the Georgian Legion training.

Foreign military experts who were at the base hid their faces from journalists.

“I don’t show my face because a couple of the guys who showed their faces were on the wanted lists of the FSB,” said instructor William.

“And I don’t want to be hit by the Russians.” 

In 2014, the Georgian Legion took part in the battles for the Lugansk airport and the city of Shchastia.

According to the adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, Vitaly Kiselyov, on February 24, Happiness came under the control of the LPR.

British military specialists remained in Ukraine until at least February 12, 2022, according to the British Deputy Secretary of Defense. 

Also on russian.rt.com The head of the British Ministry of Defense threatened to "kick" Russia

Remote access

According to the documents, a special structure of “adviser on defense” has also been created in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. 

“The UK supports defense reform by providing top-level advisory support to Ukraine through our Special Defense Adviser seconded to the Ukrainian MoD and through our representative on the Defense Reform Advisory Council,” the report states. 

The Defense Reform Advisory Council was established in the system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2016.

It is the highest level international advisory body in Ukraine and reports directly to the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine.

It includes top-level experts from the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Poland and Lithuania.

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They provide strategic advice on the institutional reform of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The Ministry of Defense of Great Britain and NATO representatives are indicated as responsible for the implementation of this direction. 

For the work of military consultants in 2020-2021, £1.63 million was allocated. 

On February 25, before the meeting of the Security Council, President Vladimir Putin announced the role of foreign advisers who taught Ukrainian military personnel to place mass rocket launchers in urban areas. 

“They plan to call back fire from Russian strike systems on residential areas.

In fact, they act like terrorists - they hide behind people in the hope of later blaming Russia for civilian casualties, the Russian president said.

“It is known for certain that all this is happening on the recommendation of foreign consultants.” 

Volodymyr Bruter, an employee of the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, points to the direct role of foreign advisers in the management of the Ukrainian army. 

“Such advisers have access to classified documentation.

That is, representatives of other countries can exercise direct external control, Bruter said in a conversation with RT.

“This means that in fact the Ukrainian army can be controlled without being related to the Ukrainian army.” 

red herring

According to the CSSF documents, Ukraine remains an "important security factor" for Europe and the UK.

It is of strategic importance for the long-term security, "stability and prosperity of Europe and the interests of Great Britain".

A lot of money is being invested in Ukraine because it remains a deterrent to Russia, Bruter clarifies.

Moreover, the West does not need Ukraine itself. 

“The Ukrainian army, like the entire Ukrainian crisis, has one and only one meaning: it is a very effective means of deterring Russia,” Bruter said.

- The West, helping Ukraine, in essence, had nothing to do with Ukraine and does not have.

We see that he refuses to defend her, but at the same time loads equipment, weapons and trains personnel.

But the main thing, Bruter notes, is that Russia in its foreign policy is constantly forced to be distracted by solving problems with Ukraine. 

“From the point of view of containing Russia, this is a very effective technique, and the fact that he was stuck for such a time shows how effective it is,” continues Bruter.

“We were constantly forced to be distracted by this topic, having no positive way out of the current situation.”  

The final goal, the authors of the British reports write, is that the program aims to “increase Ukraine’s readiness for possible reunification with Donbass and improve the coexistence of people on both sides of the line of contact.” 

However, the events of recent days have shown that the efforts of foreign specialists led to the opposite result. 

The CSSF, which publicly postulates the goals of peace, is actually pursuing the goals of a hybrid war, wrote RT: it organizes information stuffing, spends millions of pounds on creating a negative image of Russia.

Earlier, RT told how CSSF, through its contractors, forms the opinions that the West needs about the actions of Russian military personnel in Syria.

In particular, it financed the Aurelius information compromise project against Russian servicemen, led by a former MI6 employee. 

Nikolay Silaev, an employee of the Institute of International Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was one of the key participants from the Russian side in the negotiations on Donbass.

On February 25, he wrote an emotional post on Facebook about what was happening.  

“As a person who has a professional relationship with international affairs, I believe that the possibilities of diplomacy were exhausted by Thursday night,” writes Silaev.

- Russia negotiated in good faith, trying to resolve the matter with agreements that would allow not to sacrifice anyone's lives: neither the lives of the inhabitants of Donbass, nor the lives of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.

I think the best thing President Zelensky can do right now is to order the Ukrainian armed forces to lay down their arms.”