Among the gravest security concerns for Ukraine aside from the obvious Russian imperialism is a much less obvious and surreptitious infiltration by the US intelligence community of the Ukrainian American community. This is not a recent phenomenon.
In 1966 then President of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Dr. Lev Dobriansky inquired with the both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigations whether the Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council was receiving financial support from the United States Government. The Council was operating within the United States through a research and publishing house entitled Prolog. A report in a Ukrainian Soviet publication “Literaturna Ukraina” had indicated that Prolog President Mykola Lebed and Vice President Myroslav Prokop were recruits of American intelligence. The purpose behind such a smear in a Soviet publication requires separate analysis.
In a missive from the Office of the General Counsel to the CIA the counsel wrote, “you know, we enjoy a special relationship with Prolog”. In April 1967 the CIA issued a secret memorandum on this matter in which they laid out the biography of Mr. Lebed and made several revealing statements, “Prolog has been solely supported by CIA since 1952 in amounts ranging upwards from…CIA, for several reasons has never supported Dr. Dobriansky or his group pf Ukrainian nationalists…Prolog has proved very effective in establishing relations with Soviet Ukrainians ranging from high officials to ordinary workers and peasants. They recognize the realities of political life today and the necessity of advocating Ukrainian nationalist causes which are feasible within the framework of the Soviet Union today…”
With the proclamation of the renewal of Ukrainian independence in 1991 Prolog lost its funding and existence shortly thereafter. However the CIA was hardly finished with the infiltration of the Ukrainian American community with its agents. Prolog had recruited some who went on to greener pastures in government and private outfits. The CIA recruited others. Suffice it to suggest that even though I do not possess documentary evidence, to wit: membership cards in the CIA for specific Ukrainian Americans there are many out there.
US intelligence through the CIA, FBI and other agencies and structures supports Ukraine but in a lukewarm manner. Support for independence came reluctantly (four months after the proclamation) and Ukraine is viewed often as an inconvenience. Furthermore, Ukraine is recognized as a potential sacrificial lamb to be applied when necessary for global stability and to appease the Great Russian appetite.
Great Russians were always the favorites for US policy makers. During the Cold War US intelligence was clear that the concept of Ukrainian independence can only be considered within a Great Russian prism. A US National Security Council note from 1948 makes that quite clear: “…Ukrainians are the most advanced of the peoples who have been under Russian rule in modern times…It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that they should be freed…We would do well to beware of this conclusion…we cannot be indifferent to the feelings of the Great Russians themselves…”
During the period of Prolog’s existence one of the items of dispute between Prolog and the organized Ukrainian American community under the leadership of Lev Dobriansky’s UCCA was the place for Great Russians among the captive nations. Dobriansky refused to include the Great Russians in his Captive Nations Week observances. Prolog was much more amenable even publishing articles by alleged pro Ukrainian Russians in its monthly.
Today US intelligence as before operates through various facades among them structures such as the Atlantic Council and the US-Ukraine Foundation, the latter ostensibly consisting of Ukrainian Americans. How infiltrated is the UCCA I do not know, but suffice it to say that infiltration throughout is significantly more pervasive than during Dr. Dobriansky’s time. What is clear is that these structures and agents are pro active suggesting remedies to problems of Ukraine which are fake alternatives to real solutions. Major Non NATO Ally status is one such fake alternative to NATO membership which is a genuine solution. Those who propose MNNA designation for Ukraine (which gives Ukraine no security and thus does not obligate the US to provide any) may be simply ignorant, but in many instances they are following recommendations or instructions which are not predicated on genuine concern for Ukraine’s security, a Trojan horse in globally perilous modern times. That’s not good for Ukraine or America, even if the latter’s intelligence does not understand that. There can be no appeasement for Russia. It’s not possible politically or psychologically.
June 27, 2021 Askold S. Lozynskyj