The War You Don’t See: What Is Behind Ukraine’s Covert Ops?
Ukraine’s intelligence services have revolutionized the concept of modern warfare with bold, high-impact operations deep inside Russian territory, according to Bohdan Popov, Head of Digital at the United Ukraine Think Tank, in his article for The Gaze.
Popov argues that Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) and the Security Service (SBU) are redefining how conflicts are fought—not by conventional means, but through complex, agile, and technological approaches that strike at the heart of Russia’s military and psychological stability.
“Instead of the inertia and dogmatism typical of the Soviet school of intelligence,” he writes, “they have employed complex, flexible, and asymmetrical actions that not only strike the enemy but also destroy the foundations of its informational, military, and economic stability.”
One of the most emblematic examples is Operation Spider Web, an unprecedented FPV drone operation carried out by the SBU on June 1, 2025. According to Popov, “More than 40 Russian aircraft were destroyed, including Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, as well as an A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft.”
The operation, he notes, “confirmed that Ukraine is capable of operating on enemy territory not thanks to the permission of its partners, but thanks to its own technological and intelligence capabilities.”
Popov also describes the SBU’s success in maritime warfare, noting the use of the Sea Baby marine drone to strike the Crimean Bridge and Russian warships: “The small missile ship Samum was disabled in Sevastopol Bay, the SIG strike tanker in the Kerch Strait, and the fleet’s flagship Admiral Makarov, which suffered critical damage while entering for repairs.”
Highlighting operations behind enemy lines, Popov writes that strikes on logistics hubs and infrastructure, such as “the Devil’s Bridge in Transbaikalia,” have forced Russia to “reconfigure logistics routes within the Russian military-industrial complex.”
He also emphasizes the transformative role of GUR’s autonomous naval drones: “Magura V5 marine drones have become the main weapon against the Russian Black Sea Fleet… This allowed Ukraine to destroy up to a third of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s ships.”
Finally, Popov frames the work of Ukrainian intelligence as symbolic, psychological, and deeply strategic: “They are a new type of weapon: mobile, non-hierarchical, fast. And they are setting a new standard for warfare in the 21st century.”
Read the full article by Bohdan Popov on The Gaze: The War Innovators: How Ukrainian Spies Turned Sabotage Into Strategy