In 2016 and 2017, the Netherlands was the scene of two training missions for the Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR. In Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the CIA and the AIVD jointly trained dozens of talented young Ukrainian soldiers as spies. Name of the operation: Goldfish.
It is summer 2017. It is a wonderful sight for tourists at the Rotterdam Erasmus Bridge: a sailing hot tub with a small but noisy group of middle-aged men, dressed in only underpants. “Life is not going to get better,” the landlords recommend their wood-fired vessel.
A fitting slogan, because the men in the ‘bubble boat’ – representatives of American, Dutch and Ukrainian secret services – have something to celebrate. Together they have just prepared a new generation of intelligence officers for covert, risky operations in Russia. This has occupied parts of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea for three years.
But another goal has been reached: after years of efforts, the Ukrainians finally feel that they have broken the wall of American mistrust of them.
Around the same time, a CIA intelligence officer and an AIVD employee meet in Kyiv. The meeting is coincidental – the international school is organizing an information meeting there – but the two turn out to be kindred spirits. Not only do they get along well right away, they also have common concerns: the future of Ukraine, the threat from Russia.
Operation Goldfish lasts three weeks. In the end, all participants receive a diploma. A high-ranking American intelligence officer comes over especially for the presentation in an Amsterdam restaurant. The head of Operations of the AIVD is also present.
Before the ceremony, the intelligence chiefs of the three countries sail through the canal. It is not often that intelligence services from more than two countries carry out an operation together.
General Kondratjoek cannot believe his luck. More than ten years later, he says, sitting in his kitchen in Kyiv: “We became equals. No longer a younger brother or sister, but equals among the other intelligence services.”