London (AP/Sputnik) – The UK Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), better known as MI6, has been leveraging its “heritage of covert action” to assist Ukraine, Richard Moore, its chief, says.
“After the war [World War II], the SOE [the Special Operations Executive] was merged into SIS, and we cherish our heritage of covert action which we keep alive today in helping Ukraine resist the Russian invasion,” Moore said during an address at the British Embassy in Paris, Sputnik reported.
He called on NATO allies to maintain and strengthen support for Ukraine, arguing that a Russian victory would pose a direct threat to the security of the West. If Russia succeeds in Ukraine, the West will face increased threats from China, and North Korea, Moore said.
The Washington Post reported in October, citing sources, that the Security Service of Ukraine had created a “sixth directorate” to cooperate with MI6.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a broadcast interview that an offer of NATO membership to territory under Kyiv’s control would end “the hot stage of the war” in Ukraine, but any proposal to join the military alliance should be extended to all parts of the country that fall under internationally recognized borders.
Zelensky’s remarks on Friday signaled a possible way forward to the difficult path Ukraine faces to future NATO membership. At their summit in Washington in July, the 32 members declared Ukraine on an “irreversible” path to membership. However, one obstacle to moving forward has been the view that Ukraine’s borders would need to be clearly demarcated before it could join so that there can be no mistaking where the alliance’s pact of mutual defense would come into effect.
“You can’t give an invitation to just one part of a country,” the Ukrainian president said in an excerpt of the interview with Sky News, dubbed by the UK broadcaster. “Why? Because thus you would recognize that Ukraine is only that territory of Ukraine and the other one is Russia.”
Under the Ukrainian constitution, Ukraine cannot recognize territory occupied by Russia as Russian.
“So legally, by law, we have no right to recognize the occupied territory as territory of Russia,” he said.
Since the start of the war in 2022, Russia has been expending huge amounts of weaponry to make small-but-steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it already controls in east and southern Ukraine.
“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. That’s what we need to do, fast. And then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically,” he said.
An invitation for Ukraine to join NATO is one key point of Zelensky’s “victory plan”, which he presented to Western allies and the Ukrainian people in October. The plan is seen as a way for Ukraine to strengthen its hand in any negotiations with Moscow.