It was not until government forces started to approach the outskirts of Donetsk that the fighting intensified to the point of forcing a stalemate. The rebel forces began to make heavy use of conventional and rocket artillery to hammer the government forces. This forced the Ukrainians to introduce attack helicopters and ground attack aircraft.
Unfortunately, the Russians had supplied the rebels with several 2K22 Tunguska anti-aircraft self-propelled vehicles (also called SA-19 "Grisons"). These were the Russians’ newest anti-aircraft vehicles, which had a mix of 30mm guns and surface-to-air missiles. The introduction of the SA-19 was a rude surprise to the Ukrainians, who quickly lost four Mi-24 “Hind” helicopters and five Sukhoi Su-25 “Frogfoot” ground attack aircraft. The stalemate and loss of critical aircraft and helicopters was causing some concern among the NATO advisors, especially since they were less than two weeks into the operation.
As General Luka was reading over the latest reports, he heard a knock on his door and looked up to see Chief of Station, John Williams. He waved him in and indicated for him to take a seat at one of the chairs in front of his desk. Then he asked, “What are your thoughts on yesterday’s attack?”
Luka looked at the COS, hoping he had better news than what this latest report indicated. “It looks like the Ukrainians got stomped… again,” he grumbled, disappointed in the ability of their proxy to be able to execute a battle plan and root out these attackers. The CIA and DOD had spent a lot of money and man hours training their counterparts. They had hoped things would have gone better up to this point.
“I do not think the Prime Minister can continue to sustain these losses without some sort of victory,” John said, stating the obvious. The civilian populace was growing concerned with the number of soldiers and civilians being killed, and so was the international community.
“I spoke with some folks from SOCEUR. They told me if the enemy air defense weapons could be neutralized, air support could start to make a difference and would turn the tide,” General Luka explained, hinting that he would like to use the Special Forces assets in Ukraine a bit more aggressively and liberally than just as advisors.
John thought about this for a minute. The challenge in using SF units in direct action was that if they get caught or killed, it would be a political win for the enemy. “If I could, perhaps we can use some SAD units… plausible deniability and all. We know where the vehicles are at, it’s just a matter of getting close enough to destroy them.”
General Luka did not like using CIA direct action teams for what was obviously a SF mission, but he also knew he was under strict orders to not widen the conflict beyond the use of providing military advisors. The fact that several military advisors had already been killed, some in direct combat, was becoming a problem. “I’m not comfortable with having your teams carrying out this type of mission on your own. What if we could get the Ukrainian Special Forces unit to accompany your men? This way, your guys are still in a ‘advisor’ role,” the general offered.
“Hmm… I think we could work with that,” John replied.
Prisoners of War
Ambassador Rice felt like the situation in Ukraine was starting to spiral out of control as he read the latest intelligence summaries provided to him by US European Command and the State Department’s own intelligence group. After a rough first couple of weeks of this new military operation, the CIA decided that they wanted to get more involved in helping the Ukrainians eliminate some of the separatist air defense vehicles. “The Agency” had been monitoring the enemy air defense units since the start of the Ukrainian operation, so once they received the go-ahead to work directly with Ukrainian Special Forces to take them out, they executed a mission with one of their Special Operations Group teams.
The covert operation took place the night before. It had not gone well. Two CIA SOG units, in cooperation with a Ukrainian Special Forces, attempted to destroy four of the separatist SA-17 “Buk” air defense vehicles and three of the SA-19 Grisons. The first team succeeded in destroying two of the vehicles without losing a single SOG member. The second SOG team, however, was not so lucky. They were ambushed by what the CIA believed was a well-coordinated and pre-planned trap. Two of the four CIA men were killed, and the other two had been captured. The entire Ukrainian Special Forces team had been killed in the ambush.
Now, two Americans were being held captive by the separatist group, who was demanding the withdrawal of American military advisors from Ukraine. The Russians also took to the airwaves, announcing, “If NATO and the Americans are no longer going to remain neutral, then neither are we.”
After finishing reading the report, Ambassador Rice looked up at General Luka and John Williams, his Chief of Station. “Well, you gentlemen pushed for a military operation several months ago. So, what are your recommendations now that two Americans have been captured?” The left side of his lip snarled up in disgust.
General Luka sighed, but he remained determined that it was the right decision to move forward with a military option. “Ambassador, there are always going to be miscues and setbacks in any military operation. The Ukrainians have strengthened their hold and position on the separatist territory since the start of this operation. They have also seriously degraded their ability to continue to hold onto the cities. Despite the losses, they are accomplishing the stated goals. At this current rate of engagement, the separatists are nearly broken as a fighting force. They have sustained heavy casualty rates and equipment losses, far more than the Ukrainian army has. We need to continue to stay the course.”
John Williams added, “Putting the military objectives aside, we have people being held captive right now and we need to get them back. Our surveillance has identified the safehouse they are holding our guys in.”
“What? How?” asked Ambassador Rice, incredulous.
“They keep moving our men every couple of hours, but we placed an isotope tracker in all of our personnel operating in Ukraine, in case they were ever kidnapped. We can track them fairly easily,” explained John.
Duncan’s eyebrows revealed his surprise.
Stopping only to take a drink from his water bottle, Williams continued, “Before coming over here, we intercepted two messages. One communique was between the Russian paramilitary units and the separatists, ordering them to bring the Americans to a specific compound immediately. This was about two hours ago. The second communique we intercepted was between Russian military headquarters in Moscow and a Spetsnaz unit operating near the Ukrainian/Russian border. They are going to escort the Americans across the Russian border in two days to be brought back to Moscow for further questioning.” The CIA man clenched his fists at the thought of his men being held in a gulag.
Looking at General Luka, and then back to the Ambassador, John continued, “I’ve spoken with Major General Lansing from JSOC, and we have a Delta team that just arrived in country that can execute their recovery.”
General Luka nodded in agreement. “We need to move fast on this then, Ambassador. We need to get our guys back before they are moved across the border. Once that happens, I have no idea what will happen to them.”
Ambassador Rice looked at them incredulously. “You realize they are being guarded by Russian Spetsnaz, right? How do you propose getting them back?”