Adolf to Azov

It would be April 1946 when America launched their first intelligence operation to gather intelligence on whether Ukrainian Nationalist groups could be a viable source of manpower again Russia. They already had some information on where to look for support, thanks to Operation Belladona. It was just a matter of getting support. America was able to gain contact with the dissident groups in Ukraine with the help Alfred C. Ulmer. Jr. Alfred C. Ulmer. Jr was the man selected to run the operation and was appointed to his position on June 7th, 1946. It would only be a week, before Ulmer made contacts with partisan movements in Ukraine within a week

The Americans knew of Ukrainians who fled the advancing red army living in western Europe. They first wondered if it was possible to use these men, to see if they could be used to contact Ukrainian partisan back home but sending them back to penetrate the iron curtain turn out to be much more difficult than they realized.

There would be other problems as well, the Ukrainians they were dealing with did not see eye to eye with the Americans on ethnic issues, since many of these Ukrainians didn’t just hate Russian, but also hated Poles and Jews as well. Yet at the same time these Ukrainian Partisan groups were good fighter, who maintained fighting the Soviets even after the Germans had left.

As they were studied, by the Americans, the first conclusion that they drew was that the Ukrainians as well as they white Russian fighting alongside them, wanted to do nothing more but to get both America and Russia engaged in war, so both countries would become weaker. This would give both the Ukrainian nationalist and the White Russians a chance to build their own country, as the two became weaker, due to fighting.

America found out that even though there were many partisans inside Ukraine each group had different goals and objectives, and that not all of the partisans worked well together.

Another problem America learn about these Ukrainian partisan groups were that many of them have had committed war time atrocities with the Germans in World War Two. But America decided that this could be overlooked if the partisan could be of use to the Americans

America felt that it was their best interest to study these groups and gain as much information on them as possible before making actual contact with them. They had to understand these groups’ backgrounds, reliability, and motivations. This was not just limited to studying the Ukrainian Partisans and white Russians themselves but also their Nazi counterparts who they affiliated with.

The white Russian were viewed as a better source earlier on since they have had the longest enduring experience in fighting with the Soviets.

But they also found out that contacting these groups would be hard since the Soviets were also trying to infiltrate them. An American attempt to contact them, could be viewed as an effort by the Soviets to once again infiltrate their partisan groups. They also knew that Americans could be viewed as contacting the Ukrainians in bad faith since America was technically an Ally of the Soviet Union during the War.

Luckily for America, after studying the Ukrainians for long enough, they realize that the Ukrainian leadership was much more opportunistic than they once previously realized. They seemed to be politically intrigued and also were running their own propaganda campaigns of their own in Ukraine, to keep their fight going.

With many partisan groups to choose from, America felt that their best bet was to contact Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), since they were the only group that was viewed as the most effective, and they knew that Stephan Bandera was not loyal to Germany, even before World War Two ended.

While the CIA was young, they were very hesitant to contact Ukrainian partisans, but they it paid off rather quickly, when their new Ukrainian sources were able to identify possible Soviet intelligent operation work.