European-Security.com

Operation Pavutina, carried out on June 1, 2025, by Ukrainian intelligence services, primarily the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), marked a turning point in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. It illustrated Ukraine’s growing capacity to conduct complex asymmetric warfare operations and strike deep into Russian territory. This operation inflicted considerable material and psychological damage on Russia, calling into question its air defense posture and strategic depth. Strategically, the operation temporarily diminished Russia’s long-range strike capabilities, significantly boosted Ukrainian morale, provoked internal criticism within Russia of its security apparatus, and potentially influenced the ongoing peace negotiations. It also sheds light on the evolution of drone warfare and the vulnerability of conventional military assets to low-cost, high-impact asymmetric attacks.

Die Operation Pavutina, die am 1. Juni 2025 von ukrainischen Geheimdiensten, vor allem dem Sicherheitsdienst der Ukraine (SBU), durchgeführt wurde, markierte einen Wendepunkt im russisch-ukrainischen Konflikt. Sie verdeutlichte die wachsende Fähigkeit der Ukraine, komplexe asymmetrische Kriegsführung zu führen und tief in russisches Territorium einzudringen. Diese Operation fügte Russland erheblichen materiellen und psychologischen Schaden zu und stellte seine Luftverteidigungsstärke und strategische Tiefe in Frage.

« The interests of Russian oligarchs converge with those of Big Tech magnates. Putin and the major oligarchs, both Russian and American, believe themselves to be above the law. Putin’s contempt for the law goes so far that he calls into question the very notion of the state, precisely because a state is based on a legal framework and has borders, which he dislikes. Trumpism aims to replace the state with a Putin-style ‘vertical power structure’, in which officials are chosen for their loyalty rather than their competence. The dismantling of the state is accompanied by deregulation, which benefits the big oligarchs who aspire to become masters of financial flows. This is why Kremlin strategists understood very early on what services Western libertarians could provide them,‘ writes Françoise Thom in Le Monde, adding: ’Douguin’s ideas have permeated Putin’s regime and inspired the policy of destroying the United States that has been implemented for the past 20 years. The aim is to inflict on the United States the same blows that it allegedly dealt to the USSR under Gorbachev, depriving it of its allies, unilaterally disarming it, ruining its economy and bringing it to the brink of civil war and dismantlement. Everything that the Trump administration is currently doing. »

« Les intérêts des oligarques russes convergent avec ceux des magnats de la Big Tech. Poutine et les grands oligarques, russes et américains, se croient au-dessus des lois. Le mépris du droit va si loin chez Poutine qu’il en vient à mettre en cause la notion d’État, justement parce qu’un État repose sur une charpente juridique et qu’il a des frontières, ce qui lui déplaît. Le trumpisme vise à remplacer l’État par une « verticale de pouvoir » à la Poutine, dans laquelle servent des fonctionnaires choisis pour leur loyauté et non pour leur compétence. Le démantèlement de l’État s’accompagne d’une dérégulation dont profitent les grands oligarques ambitionnant de se rendre maîtres des flux financiers. C’est pourquoi les stratèges du Kremlin ont très tôt compris quels services pouvaient leur rendre les libertariens occidentaux ».

The Kremlin’s “dogma” is flexible. Since the end of World War II, the USSR viewed the United States as its greatest ideological adversary. Under Putin’s leadership, it was believed that the war in Ukraine was in fact a war between the U.S. and Russia, with Europeans merely acting as American vassals. With Trump, the narrative shifted. Now, Europe is accused of being “fascist,” while Russia and the United States are cast as allies for “peace.” Françoise Thom offers a meticulous analysis of this new Russian doctrine, based on a document recently published by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

Desk Russia has decided to publish the full translation of this publication attributed by the SVR to Mr Tcheremnykh and V. Motchalov and asked Françoise Thom to analyse it.

The new honeymoon with Washington is forcing the SVR of the Russian Federation to reorient the Russian national narrative. ‘European special services are ready to do anything to achieve their criminal goal, namely to perpetuate the conflict in Ukraine between NATO member states and Russia,’ the SVR warned on its website on 24 April.