How Ukraine was Saved.

C.J. Chivers has a fascinating and harrowing account of the lead up to the protests in Ukraine and how the siloviki, or senior intelligence officers, worked to frustrate Yanukovych and avoid a bloodbath. The story starts with 10,000 troops preparing a Soviet-style crack down on the protesters in Independence Square.

While wet snow fell on the rally in Independence Square, an undercover colonel from the Security Service of Ukraine, or S.B.U., moved among the protesters' tents. He represented the successor agency to the K.G.B., but his mission, he said, was not against the protesters. It was to thwart the mobilizing troops. He warned opposition leaders that a crackdown was afoot.

Simultaneously, senior intelligence officials were madly working their secure telephones, in one instance cooperating with an army general to persuade the Interior Ministry to turn back.

The officials issued warnings, saying that using force against peaceful rallies was illegal and could lead to prosecution and that if ministry troops came to Kiev, the army and security services would defend civilians, said an opposition leader who witnessed some of the exchanges and Oleksander Galaka, head of the military's intelligence service, the G.U.R., who made some of the calls.

Far behind the scenes, Col. Gen. Ihor P. Smeshko, the S.B.U. chief, was coordinating several of the contacts, according to Maj. Gen. Vitaly Romanchenko, leader of the military counterintelligence department, who said that on the spy chief's orders he warned General Popkov to stop. The Interior Ministry called off its alarm.

Gen. Smeshko attended a meeting of the government where plans were discussed to use troops to disperse the crowds blocking government offices. As he listened silently, his agency was working behind the scenes:

Even as the election commission deliberated over Mr. Yanukovich's victory, Ukrayinska Pravda, a news Web site, posted transcripts of conversations from among members of the Yanukovich campaign.

The officials were discussing plans to rig the election, including padding the vote. One conversation, recorded on election night, was between Yuri Levenets, a campaign manager, and a man identified as Valery.

Valery: "We have negative results."

Mr. Levenets: "What do you mean?"

Valery: "48.37 for opposition, 47.64 for us."

Valery later added: "We have agreed to a 3 to 3.5 percent difference in our favor. We are preparing a table. You will have it by fax."

Mr. Yanukovich won by 2.9 percent. In an interview, Mr. Ribachuk said he gave the transcripts to Pravda after receiving them from the S.B.U., which had bugged the Yanukovich campaign.

General Smeshko refused to discuss the tapes in detail. "Officially, the S.B.U. had nothing to do with the surveillance of Yanukovich campaign officials," he said. "Such taping would be illegal in this country without permission from the court. I will say nothing more."

But a member of the siloviki, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the taping was illegal, acknowledged the surveillance but said it was too delicate for General Smeshko to confirm. "Those who did this, they did not intend to become heroes," the officer said. "They wanted only to prevent a falsified election."

S.B.U. Officers met with Yushchenko and came to agreement that the agency would provide security for the candidate and demonstrate publicly that it was on the side of the law and not any particular candidate.

Officers appeared in the Square and read a statement that confirmed that concerns about the election were valid and urged the Supreme Court to work objectively.

Then they addressed police officers and soldiers. "Do not forget that you are called to serve the people," their statement said. "The S.B.U. considers its main assignment is to protect the people, no matter the source of the threat. Be with us!"

It was a rare moment for officers used to anonymity and reflected how deeply opposition sentiments had reached into Ukrainian society. In interviews, two officers from the stage, Lt. Gen. Oleksander Skibinetsky, a reservist, and Lt. Gen. Oleksander Skipalsky, who is retired, were asked if their families influenced their decisions.

"Both of our wives were in the square," General Skibinetsky said.

General   Skipalsky said: "My wife. And my daughter, too."

The signal seemed to have had its desired effect. The next morning, cadets from the Interior Ministry's academy joined the opposition, marching to the barricades to try to persuade the officers on duty to join them. A few carried flowers.

A confrontation between Kuchma and Yanukovych ensued with the outgoing president finally daring Yanukovych to order the crackdown himself. Yanukovych left when Kuchma returned to his office with a television crew.

Tymoshenko addressed the crowd and told the protesters that there would be an effort to unblock the government buildings. This precipitated the alarm to mobilize the troops.

Precisely what followed, and why, remains unclear, as does who gave the order, and by what means. General Popkov insists that he alone was engaged in a calculated bluff, and thus made certain his signal would be instantly seen.

Holding up his mobile phone, he said, "I deliberately gave the order on this phone, which is bugged."

Whether General Popkov's phone was bugged is not publicly known. But General Romanchenko said his agents in the interior units watched the preparations; simultaneously, S.B.U officers said, their agents in the Interior Ministry's communications center heard radio traffic about preparations to march. Bedlam, and battles of nerves, ensued.

Ms Tymoshenko met with a group of siloviki. Chivers recounts the extraordinary details:

Ms. Tymoshenko said she watched with amazement as the siloviki and then General Petruk made calls and warned the Interior Ministry "that they are on the side of the people, and will defend the people, and that the M.V.D. will have to deal not only with unarmed people and youth if it comes to Kiev, but with the army" and the special forces inside the intelligence agencies.

Eventually, General Popkov folded. "He said he was carrying out orders and he was not a key figure," Ms. Tymoshenko said. First the trucks stopped on the shoulder of the road. Then the alarm was called off.

Ms Tymoshenko says that she witnessed what she was envious of in the Rose Revolution in Georgia. She says that she found that their generals were on the side of the people.

Read the whole thing and read it again. It is important and astounding and inspiring.

Comments

[TulipGirl]

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[Daniel]

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