- State affiliation · Ukraine
- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
State affiliation: Ukraine.
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
Military-intelligence service whose combat operations became a publicly prominent part of the war — including the maritime drone campaign widely attributed to it in public reporting. Deliberately under-documented here: only publicly claimed or widely reported associations are recorded.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 5 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- Not territorial. Publicly claimed operations span the Black Sea, the occupied territories and Russian territory to the Urals. Nothing about structure, stations or methods is authored.
- Notable history
- The military intelligence directorate of the Ministry of Defence, inherited from the Soviet structure in 1992 and rebuilt after 2014. The full-scale war turned it into something the Soviet pattern never anticipated: a service that fights. Its publicly claimed record includes the Magura maritime-drone programme that helped push the Black Sea Fleet east, long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries, airfields and export terminals, cross-border raids, and, in 2026, the joint announcements with the navy of the Novorossiysk strikes. Its leadership has been among the war's most public figures and is carried on the office records, not here. The service's prominence is itself a structural fact about the war — a deep campaign run in significant part outside the branches of the Armed Forces — and the reason the atlas files it as a branch under an intelligence umbrella rather than leaving it out.
- Strengths
- Demonstrated reach, a technical programme the navy and the Security Service now share, and a public standing that has survived four years of war.
- Limitations
- Everything the record cannot say: size, structure, the share of the deep campaign it conducts, and the line between its claims and independent confirmation. The atlas carries the associations that are public and grades them accordingly.
Documented equipment
Related organisations
- KRAKEN 1654 Institutionally linked to · as of 2022-02 · moderate confidence
Formed in early 2022 in association with Ukrainian military-intelligence structures. Recorded as the unit's documented origin, not as a claim about current subordination.
- Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion Reported association · as of 2026-07 · low confidence
Public compilation files the battalion under Defence Intelligence; reporting describes it as within Ukrainian structures without naming the parent. Recorded as an association at low confidence.
- Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment Institutionally linked to · as of 2026-07 · moderate confidence
Public compilation and the regiment's own statements place it under Defence Intelligence rather than in the Ground Forces' International Legion, which it declined to join to keep its autonomy. Recorded at the strength of a reported institutional link, not a published order.
- Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) Reported association · as of 2024-03 · low confidence
Reporting associates the corps with Defence Intelligence and its International Legion; the unit's own statements have described it as interacting with Ukrainian forces without being part of them, and the Defence Intelligence chief said in March 2024 that Ukraine would help the Russian formations. Recorded as an association, not a command.
- Siberian Battalion Reported association · as of 2024-03 · moderate confidence
Reported as a battalion within Defence Intelligence's international legion, and distinguished in reporting from the other Russian formations by being inside the regular Armed Forces structure. Recorded as an association because no Ukrainian statement publishes the subordination.
Lineage & institutional history
Formal parent institution: Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
Campaigns
Campaigns naming this organisation as a participant. The campaign record owns the relationship and grades it; this list is computed.
- The Black Sea campaign and the export corridor Reported participant · Since February 2022 · moderate confidence · as of 2025-12
- The Ukrainian deep-strike campaign Reported participant · Since 2022 · moderate confidence · as of 2026-06
Military intelligence is repeatedly reported as conducting deep operations including maritime drone attacks. Ukraine rarely confirms attribution, so the role is recorded as reported.
Campaign involvement
Black Sea Fleet pushed from the western Black Sea
Repeated strikes on Sevastopol and losses to naval drones force Russia to relocate most major fleet units eastward; Ukraine's unilateral export corridor consolidates in the fleet's absence.
Quick actions
System access
Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.
Assessed as of — 2026-07 Last reviewed — 2026-09-14
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