RUSSIA

Operation Troy: Russia’s blueprint for spreading chaos in Ukraine

Kremlin military doctrine emphasises precision strikes, psychological warfare and cyberattacks
Kremlin military doctrine emphasises precision strikes, psychological warfare and cyberattacks
ALEXANDER AKSAKOV/GETTY IMAGES

The spies were in place, the leaders of the uprising were already named. When Alexei Muratov sent his plan to a Kremlin official in November 2014, the aims were clear.

Later cracked by a team of hackers, the code-protected document outlined “Troy” — a strategy to prepare the people of Zaporizhzhia region in eastern Ukraine for a pro-Russian takeover, or, as he put it, a “liberation from Nazi-fascist occupiers”.

The proposal was part of a wider Kremlin engagement with strategies to destabilise Ukraine. It was revealed in a new report seen by The Times that is based on the leaked emails of a deputy to Vladislav Surkov, the influential Kremlin aide who some call Putin’s Rasputin.

Bob Seely, the Conservative MP who co-authored the report,