NIA arrests six Ukrainians, one from US for plotting terror activities in India
- Thread starter Ashwin
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OSINT evidences suggest ties of suspects with the Ukrainian military and the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR).
Ivan Sukmanovsky was mentioned in the 2020 "Lifecell" leak in connection with the A2372 AFU unit - the 68th RTB (Izmail, Odesa) - which is responsible for electronic warfare and reconnaissance. Old social media photos suggest that he has been in the military since at least 2017.
Marian Stefankiv was identified as a fighter of the "Aratta" neo-nazi volunteer unit in a 2020 interview. "Aratta" was formed in 2014 and connected to the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR). The unit specialises in UAVs, deep strikes, reconnaissance and sabotage.
Source: Black Ops in Southeast Asia: India Tracks Ukrainian Footprints in Myanmar’s War | India Narrative
Ivan Sukmanovsky was mentioned in the 2020 "Lifecell" leak in connection with the A2372 AFU unit - the 68th RTB (Izmail, Odesa) - which is responsible for electronic warfare and reconnaissance. Old social media photos suggest that he has been in the military since at least 2017.
Marian Stefankiv was identified as a fighter of the "Aratta" neo-nazi volunteer unit in a 2020 interview. "Aratta" was formed in 2014 and connected to the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR). The unit specialises in UAVs, deep strikes, reconnaissance and sabotage.
Source: Black Ops in Southeast Asia: India Tracks Ukrainian Footprints in Myanmar’s War | India Narrative
US, Ukraine citizens who went to Mizoram posed no threat to India: Shah | India News - The Times of India
India News: NEW DELHI: Home minister Amit Shah on Friday said a group of foreigners — including one American citizen and six Ukrainians — arrested recently by NIA.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Either a deal has been struck to get Nikhil Gupta out or the US has successfully squeezed GoI's balls meaning no deal but we release those arrested ASAP.US, Ukraine citizens who went to Mizoram posed no threat to India: Shah | India News - The Times of India
India News: NEW DELHI: Home minister Amit Shah on Friday said a group of foreigners — including one American citizen and six Ukrainians — arrested recently by NIA.
Otherwise there are plenty of these evangelical groups operating in the same region in Myanmar who're also responsible for arming those militants there. Have all those evangelical groups made their way to Myanmar from India? Is that what AS is implying?
Just to hammer in the point I personally recall seeing videos of exactly such groups on YT ~ 10-15 years ago about ex military personnel from the US also aligned to these Christian evangelical groups who made the journey to Myanmar from Thailand IIRC to train rebels & actually fight the Tatmadaw there.
There's no dearth of religious groups working to bring "salvation" to the unaware.
The writer of this article is a Mizo protestant who has written articles in support of various Anti-junta christian trans-national outfits before. This piece may be an attempt at negative PR against the Russians amongst the Indian public, given Russian intel's recent involvement:
The primary issue here is if ILP is mandatory to visit such places for Indians whereas for foreigners it's the PAP which is the same thing why's it being issued liberally to foreigners or issued at all given recent developments there when the same is not easily obtained by Indians.
Secondly what's the system of checks & balances in place to check on activities of such foreigners who've been issued those permits ? Or as usual do the authorities become wiser after the incident ?
I recently read an article which I think was linked here wherein local authorities were asking non resident Indians likely journalists or tourists to those places if they came across westerners indulging in suspicious activities.
A few months ago I clicked on a channel of an Aussie father son duo on YT who made a series of vlogs on their tour of the NE on motorcycles . The father in his 60s by the looks of it was boasting he's been coming down to the NE for more than 3 decades.
The algorithm then introduced me to a series of such visitors all whom made similar vlogs on their tour of India especially the NE on motorcycles practically all of whom were from the west except a couple of whom one was a Brazilian & the other a Mexican IIRC. All these developments are from the past 3-4 years.
Have to say this. Because north India has seen several wars, major ground/air battles & insurgencies running for decades, the security apparatus has developed a very good intel grid there. East/Northeast has no grid of this sort. In fact, in some states is have a "conflict economy", where domestic/local players benefit from a continuing conflict.
There are people in local police/law enforcement/bureaucracy that frequently offer foreigner "exemptions" to the ILP (and other things) in exchange for "money/favors". This is a major problem. You can't have law & order when the law enforcement is this corrupt. IB needs to get more hands on here.
Rotate BSF troops deployed on the Indo-Bangladesh & Indo-Myanmar with those deployed on the Indo-Pak borders. Occasionally send the Assam Rifles on roving duty around border towns. Don't do much just roam around. Let people know you are around. I would ask the bureaucrats to be rotated too, but Modi seems to love the babus.
If New Delhi decides to crack down on this hard enough many of these gunrunning/smuggling/drug networks will fall apart. But there will be short term political ramification in Manipur, Nagaland & Mizoram. There should be no major political problems in Sikkim, Tripura, Arunachal & Assam.
Border troops in Nagaland & Mizoram need to be tougher. On several occasions in the recent past they have allowed these Myanmar Naga groups off the hook with a light slap on the wrist. This has given them the impression that they can just do things & get away with it.
This why I would like to see Indo-Pak border troops here. Of all the border guard units that we have, troops deployed on the LoC are by far the most trigger happy. There will be some incidents, that is to be expected. After all, as the saying goes "भय बिनु होइ न प्रीति".
I hope New Delhi takes the right lessons from the collapse of the Naxal movement. Enough time has been spent in "winning hearts & minds". The reason pressure campaigns didn't work in the past is largely due to the fact that New Delhi has short attention span. We have sustained a massive counter-intel/terror/insurgent grid in J&K & Punjab for decades. In East/NE our intel grids maintain pressure for a few months & then let go.
When Hasina was removed, domestic & cross-border intel networks were activated across the East/NE region. Now as things settle down in Bangladesh & Nepal, these networks will be sent back to sleep. Can't get results this way.
Sorry for the rant.
With the recent massive increases in intel budgets in think the gov looking at it the same way. I doubt India would put LOC troops on the eastern border. The militant groups need to be given harsher punishments at times but putting LOC troops there would just make people feel unsafe especially if there are incidents vs innocent civilians.
Its looks more likely that the intel groups will no longer have a short attention span. Having local security troops is the best way to get a population to help the mil against militants. They just need to get stricter and need to have a more long term plan.
I completely disagree with the hearts and mind thing. It is a incredibly effective way of dealing with groups that cause more harm but it needs pressure behind it to work. Causing fear is a short term solution with long term resentment and will furthur alienate people which goes against the entire point of the establishment of India.