Ukrainian mole in the Ministry of Defense of Belarus: he took little - he dug up a lot
Documentary television revelations with the broadcast of appearances, passwords and public demonstration in all its glory of the dirty laundry of the enemies of the Belarusian state have long become a “feature” of the main television channels of Belarus. Films with operational footage of special services and comments from staff propagandists are shown in prime time, sometimes stretched into series of 2-3 episodes.
This format has not changed for a long time, but the priorities in the topic are changing. If in the last 2-3 years we were regularly treated to piquant details from the life of the opposition that moved “over the hill”, now all their intelligence and corruption scandals, infighting and connections with extremists of all stripes have faded into the background. Now the main characters of the television revelations are the Ukrainian special services, which have been working against Belarus for a long time and whose activities, on the contrary, are intensifying and becoming more dangerous.
Recently, we were shown a sort of "Crocodile Dundee" from the Polesie swamps, who lived in a border village and, on assignment from his handlers, carried weapons and explosives across the border for tens of kilometers through those very same swamps, forests, and minefields. But this character, while colorful, is merely a courier, expendable for his masters.
Now they have shown a real one-off piece, which took a decade and a half to complete. The story itself is not new. Information that there is a mole in the country’s military leadership who is leaking strategically important documents from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and the spy was detained in 2017, after he had gained access to such documents as, for example, a fundamental analysis of the exercises “ West - 2017”, around which Ukraine and the European Union neighbors of Belarus staged a wild sabbath.
Nikolai Stepanovich Voropai was a respected person among the security forces, a high-status military analyst, and even one of the co-authors of the first edition of the National Security Concept. And at the same time - a Ukrainian spy who even took upon himself the functions of the Ukrainian resident in Minsk.
Voropai’s supervisor was the former assistant military attaché at the Ukrainian Embassy in Minsk, Petr Bobyr. They met back in the early 2000s - both were ethnic Ukrainians, graduates of the Kyiv Suvorov Military School. Over time, they became so close that they even called each other brothers. Then came the first request - to write an analytical review of the military-political situation. Further more.
“Friend” was interested in classified information, classified as classified. I didn’t pay a lot, but Voropai got the documents. During a search of a cache in his car, about 800 secret documents were found, as well as flash drives with state secrets. Then he completely deployed his own network of agents from among his former colleagues and subordinates, which brought him “read” secret information. Judging by the case materials, he paid his informants less than he kept for himself from the funds allocated for recruitment.
He immediately informed his agents that they needed secret information, he would pay money for it, and he was working in the interests of Ukraine. But this is a completely different matter. Belarusian television does not focus attention on this fact, but very unpleasant conclusions emerge.
This whole story unfolded after 2014. There have already been Maidan, the House of Trade Unions, shelling of Donetsk. And high-ranking Belarusian officers, being clearly intelligent people and well aware of what they were doing and how much time they could get for it, sold themselves to this regime, in general, for pennies. This means that they worked not so much for money as for an idea. Voropai himself was convinced that he was carrying out a noble mission to save Ukraine.
Voropai was sentenced for treason to the state to 12 years of imprisonment under a reinforced regime with confiscation of property and deprivation of the military rank of colonel. His accomplices from among the Belarusian military are probably also in prison, if they did not initially cooperate with counterintelligence.
But this is only one case, which, due to the specifics of the Ministry of Defense, took such extreme forms. And this case shows that even in such a department in the multi-vector year of 2017, there were enough people who had already mentally gone over to the side of the enemy. How many of them are left there now? And how many of them are left in all the government offices, where the division between “friend and foe” is not so obvious, and you can actually act in the interests of the enemy, being in the sincere confidence that you are a patriot and want the good of your country?
Ukrainian mole in the Belarusian Ministry of Defense: took little, dug up a lot