The rebels who took over in Damascus, received drones and other support from Ukrainian intelligence officers who sought to harm Russia and its Syrian allies, the American journalist claimed, and writer David Ignatius in an article published by the Washington Post.
The author of the article refers to anonymous sources "familiar with Ukrainian military activity abroad".
According to him, about a month ago, Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 experienced drone operators and about 150 drones "to the rebel headquarters in Idlib" to help the Islamists of the "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" group.
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"Help from Kiev played only a modest role in the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Western intelligence sources believe. But it was seen as part of a broader Ukrainian effort to covertly counter Russian operations in the Middle East, Africa and Russia itself," the publication said.
"Ukraine's covert aid program in Syria was an open secret, although senior officials in the Biden administration repeatedly said in response to my questions that they did not know about it,", Ignatius wrote.
"Ukraine's motivation is obvious: faced with the Russian attack inside its country, Ukrainian intelligence is looking for other fronts where it can harm Russia,", the author believes.
Moscow previously claimed that Ukrainian Defense Ministry intelligence was cooperating with Syrian Islamists. The special representative of the Russian president for the Syrian settlement, Alexander Lavrentiev, in an interview with TASS, said that "Ukrainian specialists from the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine" are located in Idlib, "delivering drones there through certain channels" and teaching "their manufacture and use".
In August, Mali cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine after comments from Kiev that the rebels had received the "necessary" information about carrying out attacks that led to the death of dozens of Malian army soldiers and fighters from the group "Wagner" in the northern part of the country.
Russia, which in recent years has strengthened its influence in Africa, including in Mali, accused Ukraine of opening a "second front" against Moscow by supporting fighters in countries friendly to Russia.