How the covert Ukrainian resistance movement is operating behind Russian lines
One of the most secret weapons to combat Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has started to raise its profile.
A new video posted on social media seeks to promote the covert activities of a network of Ukrainian civilians, living – and fighting – behind Russian lines.
Run by the Ukrainian special forces, this resistance movement is growing, according to its commander, who said any adult – old, young, male, female – can join.
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They just need to be loyal to Ukraine – and brave.
In an echo of Britain’s Special Operations Executive that ran missions behind enemy lines during the Second World War, the tasks of the Ukrainian resistance inside territory captured by Moscow include espionage, sabotage and “eliminating” Russian forces, the commander told Sky News.
He said the men and women of the resistance are active in Crimea as well as parts of southern and eastern Ukraine and have carried out jobs within Russia.
Groups are also being created – as a precaution – in parts of Ukraine that may yet fall under Russian control.
In addition, civilians in Russia who oppose Vladimir Putin’s rule have started learning from Ukraine’s resistance to help them with their own operations.
Security and defence editor Deborah Haynes interviewing the leader
“Of course, the work that our people are doing is dangerous,” said the commander, a special forces colonel, who asked to be anonymous for security reasons. We are calling him Mykola.
“Many of our people have died during their work and many of them end up in Russian prisons,” Mykola said.
“But this does not scare us, because our goal justifies the losses we are suffering.”
It is the first time the head of the Resistance of Ukrainian Special Operations Forces – the name of the military branch that runs the resistance movement – has given an interview.
“Among us are those people who calmly, quietly, covertly perform their tasks without expecting a quick reward or glory,” the colonel said, speaking at a hotel in Kyiv.
“The main motivation of our people, all of us, is freedom. We want to defend our country… the Russians will have to either kill us all – or leave.”
Another screenshot from the promotional video
Video footage shared with Sky News by the Ukrainian special forces purportedly shows a number of resistance missions – though the commander was very reluctant to talk about any specific operation because of the danger to his people on the ground.
One clip from last year purportedly shows members of the resistance setting fire to electricity transmitters in Russia’s southwestern region of Voronezh, next door to Ukraine.
The group’s symbol
There is also footage from 2023 of individuals, their faces covered, spray-painting in black the logo of the resistance – two arrows pointing in opposite directions, and a dot in the middle – on the side of buildings in an occupied part of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
In addition, a video from the first days of the full-scale invasion in 2022, offered evidence of a member of the resistance filming Russian troop movements in the town of Irpin, just outside Kyiv, during a failed push by Moscow to assault the capital.
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The commander said the resistance is used to monitor Russian troops and share information on how the Russian authorities are operating in an occupied area.
They have more active roles too.
Some members are deployed to disrupt supply lines to make it harder for Moscow to transport food and ammunition to its frontline forces.
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“We also try to kill the military personnel of the Russian Federation at all costs – and destroy their military equipment,” Mykola said.
The information provided by resistance members is shared with the Ukrainian armed forces to help coordinate military strikes and other offensives, including into Crimea.
The commander said the resistance will be key in any future push to force the Russian military to withdraw from the peninsula that they have occupied since 2014.
“A lot of our subordinates there are carrying out reconnaissance missions,” Mykola said.
“It’s not surprising that the FSB [Russian security services] is doing a lot of work [in Crimea]. But they still can’t catch our people.”
Hinting at the weight of responsibility on his shoulders for being in charge of such high-risk operations, he added: “Thank God for that.”
Mykola said the resistance began informally after Russia first invaded Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine a decade ago.
However, it became a more formal structure, under the command of the special operations forces, in the run-up to Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
He described the programme as being like an iceberg.
Mykola said he sat on the visible part at the top of the iceberg, with special forces officers – who are in charge of different parts of the resistance – placed beneath him and then the vast network of resistance members spreading out underneath them.
Asked how big the resistance was, he said: “I can’t tell you a specific number, because this information is secret. But I can tell you that there are thousands of these people… I am happy to see it is growing.”
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The promotion video directs anyone who is interested in joining to contact the special forces team via a website.
“We have now started a campaign to popularise the resistance movement and we are creating the conditions for every citizen of Ukraine to be able to communicate with us in a confidential way and to offer their services,” Mykola said.
While boosting its ranks, this open-door policy also raises the risk of pro-Russian infiltrators penetrating the network. But the commander said his team was alert to this and they cut ties with anyone they suspect as being a mole working for the other side.
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Russia strikes northern and eastern Ukraine
As well as expanding the resistance in Ukraine, Mykalo said his unit has recently started to receive expressions of interest from civilians inside Russia.
He said any Russian resistance would not be run by his team but they could learn lessons from Ukrainian resistance operations.
“It is a part of the resistance, but their resistance is against Putin’s regime. It is not our movement that we organise inside of our country,” Mykalo said.
“They are already learning from us and they are starting to use our methods already within the Russian Federation and we see a great potential in those things.”
A new aid system has opened its first distribution centres in Gaza, according to a US-backed organisation dealing with supplies.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began its operations in the territory on Monday, following the resignation of its director, Jake Wood, over its independence.
Gaza’s 2.3m population has been pushed towards famine by Israel’s almost three-month blockade.
Boxes of aid to be distributed across Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
The GHF said lorryloads of food – it did not say how many – had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun.
“More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it said in a statement.
The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the United Nations and other aid groups.
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People line up for food in Gaza
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF.
They claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.
They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs, and violates humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.
In the meantime, scores of Palestinians in Gaza, like Islam Abu Taima, have resorted to searching through rubbish to find food.
Palestinians are having to search through rubbish to find food
She found a small pile of cooked rice, scraps of bread, and a box with a few pieces of cheese inside it – which she said she will serve to her five children.
“We’re dying of hunger,” she told the Associated Press news agency.
“If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Islam Abu Taeima finds a piece of bread in a pile of rubbish in Gaza City. Pic: AP.
It is unclear how many of the GHF’s aid trucks will enter Gaza.
It claims it will reach one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
There are questions, however, over who is funding it and how it will work.
Trucks transporting aid for Palestinians in Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
It has been set up as part of an Israeli plan – rather than a UN distribution effort.
Israel, which suggested a similar plan earlier this year, has said it will not be involved in distributing the aid but supported the plan and would provide security.
It says aid deliveries into Gaza are taken by Hamas instead of going to civilians.
Aid groups, however, say there is no evidence of this happening on a systemic basis.
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Israel began to allow a limited amount of food into Gaza last week – after a blockade that prevented food, medicine, fuel and other goods from entering the Palestinian enclave.
A letter has been signed by hundreds of judges and lawyers calling on the UK government to impose trade sanctions on Israel.
It also calls for Israeli ministers to be sanctioned and the suspension of Israel from the UN over “serious breaches of international law”.
“Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or that, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide,” the letter says.
The Israeli government has repeatedly dismissed allegations of genocide in Gaza.
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At least 31 dead after school attack
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, following the deadly attacks by the militant group on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
The health ministry’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters in Gaza.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.
Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.
More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.
King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.
“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.
John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.
“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.
“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.
“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”
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John Jefkins
John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.
“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.
“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”
The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”
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King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a two-day visit to Canada.
On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.
Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”
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