The Post report said the FSB echoed Kovalenko’s confidence in picking out an apartment, telling several informants to leave their homes in Ukraine but to leave their keys behind. Ukrainian and Western officials told The Post that Russian officials, anticipating an easy victory, were picking accommodations for the personnel they planned to bring into Ukraine.

Sinéad Baker is a News Reporter based in Business Insider’s London bureau. Sinéad most often covers breaking news, US politics, and global censorship. She has covered developments within the Trump administration, written about terrorist attacks in real time around the world, and delved into the aftermath of aviation disasters. This first appeared in Insider.