The feared Russian intelligence agency FSB royally screwed up their assessment of the ease of victory for the forthcoming Russian invasion of Ukraine, with agents looking for potential office space in Kyiv they planned to occupy a week after launching the attack, the Washington Post reports.
A special unit within the FSB, the Department of Operational Information, assured Kremlin officials that the Russian invasion would be quickly successful, either because they completely misread Ukrainian anti-Russian sentiments or because they were frightened to tell Putin something he didn’t want to hear.
Their loyalty has paid off: after growing the Ukraine unit within the FSB from 30 personnel to about 150 in the months before the invasion, none of the key players have been replaced or “disappeared” even though the expected week-long invasion is stalled after nearly six months.