When Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, the first priority was to capture Kyiv. And in Moscow they counted on a “domino effect”, which was supposed to cover the whole country.

This Washington Post was told by an unnamed representative of the Ukrainian special services..

“They thought that first they would seize the central government, and then they would strengthen their presence in the regions,” he explained..

As part of this plan, the FSB created two pro-Russian " Although British intelligence even before the invasion spoke about one team of " Ukrainian officials say they don't understand why Russia mobilized two groups. While some have speculated that Vladimir Putin may have wanted to have a choice.

One of the puppet governments was placed in Belarus. It was led by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after the protests.. On March 7, his plane landed in Minsk, after which there were suspicions that Moscow might try to return him to power.. Because the Kremlin continued to insist after 2014 that Yanukovych was the “legitimate” leader of Ukraine..

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Yanukovych himself published an open letter to President Volodymyr Zelensky urging him to step down in order to “stop the bloodshed and achieve peace at any cost.”. This appeal by Yanukovych was actively disseminated by Russian state media.. Over the next three weeks, the security chief of the fugitive ex-president spoke three times to high-ranking FSB officers from the unit that handled operations in Ukraine.. This is evidenced by Ukrainian intelligence data..

The second potential " He was mobilized in the south of Ukraine after the occupation of regions in this part of the country by Russian troops..

It included Oleg Tsarev, who was once a deputy from the " At the beginning of the war, on his Telegram channel, he confirmed his presence in Ukraine and wrote that " In a telephone conversation with the Washington Post last month, Tsarev said he even spent the first weeks of the war in the suburbs of Kyiv “with friends,” whom he declined to name.. Tsarev also refused to say whether he was involved in plans to seize power in Ukraine.. The Washington Post writes that the FSB agents were so confident in the occupation of Kyiv that they spent the last days before the invasion quartering their agents.. Before the invasion, they ordered their “moles” in the capital of Ukraine to flee the city, but leave the keys to housing. One of the heads of FSB operations in Ukraine was going to settle in Obolon.