Ukrainian Intel Carried Out Operation to Discredit Romania in Europe - Source
Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service has carried out a covert operation to instill a negative impression of Romania in European countries, the European Union and the European Commission as of a country opposed to pan-European values, according to a classified report shared with Sputnik by a Russian security source on Wednesday
KHERSON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th May, 2022) Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service has carried out a covert operation to instill a negative impression of Romania in European countries, the European Union and the European Commission as of a country opposed to pan-European values, according to a classified report shared with Sputnik by a Russian security source on Wednesday.
"Russian security services received confidential information from sources in the special services of Ukraine, proving that the Ukrainian foreign intelligence service carried out activities aimed at discrediting Romanian foreign policy," the source said.
The details on the operation code-named "Ovidius" came from a classified report prepared in December 2014 for the deputy head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service Lysenko. The operation was aimed at "conducting a targeted disinformation campaign to deliver to the heads of EU member states discrediting information about Romanian foreign policy in the Ukrainian, Moldovan and European directions."
The operation mainly targeted EU and European Commission officials, diplomatic staff of European countries stationed in Moldova, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia.
The source said that a Ukrainian and a Moldovan nationals, both with academic background, were the main agents. The former received the necessary information from the Ukrainian agent and facilitated its publishing on a Moldovan analytical portal AVA.MD.
"The publication of the article prompted an outcry in the expert and information community of Moldova ... Given the fact that representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Moldova read the materials published on the website, it is evident that this (forged) information was brought to the attention of the main geopolitical actors in the region, including the EU," the report said.
The report noted that the operation was overall successful as Dirk Schuebel, the head of the EU mission to Moldova at the time, gave a negative assessment of the political activity of the leaders of the pro-Romanian Liberal Party and Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova.
The text of his statement had "some analogies" with the published article, above all in the claim that the policies of the pro-Romanian lobby in Moldova run counter to European values, the report concluded.