When the first armored vehicles of Russia’s invading army reached the heart of Chernobyl nuclear plant on the afternoon of Feb. 24, they encountered a Ukrainian unit charged with defending the notorious facility.

In less than two hours, and without a fight, the 169 members of the Ukrainian National Guard laid down their weapons. Russia had taken Chernobyl, a repository for tonnes of nuclear material and a key staging post on the approach to Kyiv.

The fall of Chernobyl, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, stands out as an anomaly in the five-month old war: a successful blitzkrieg operation in a conflict marked elsewhere by a brutal and halting advance by Russian troops and grinding resistance by Ukraine.

Now a Reuters investigation has found that Russia’s success at Chernobyl was no accident, but part of a long-standing Kremlin operation to infiltrate the Ukrainian state with secret agents.

FILE – A sandbag barricade sits on a building close to the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine April 16, 2022.

Five people with knowledge of the Kremlin’s preparations said war planners around President Vladimir Putin believed that, aided by these agents, Russia would require only a small military force and a few days to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration to quit, flee or capitulate.

Through interviews with dozens of officials in Russia and Ukraine and a review of Ukrainian court documents and statements to investigators, related to a probe into the conduct of people who worked at Chernobyl, Reuters has established that this infiltration reached far deeper than has been publicly acknowledged. The officials interviewed include people inside Russia who were briefed on Moscow’s invasion planning and Ukrainian investigators tasked with tracking down spies.

“Apart from the external enemy, we unfortunately have an internal enemy, and this enemy is no less dangerous,” the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said in an interview.

At the time of the invasion, Danilov said, Russia had agents in the Ukrainian defense, security and law enforcement sectors. He declined to give names but said such traitors needed to be “neutralized” at all costs.

Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation is conducting a probe into whether the National Guard acted unlawfully by surrendering its weapons to an enemy, a local official told Reuters. The State Bureau of Investigation didn’t comment. The National Guard defended the actions of its unit at the plant, pointing to the risks of conflict at a nuclear site.

Court documents and testimony, reported here for the first time, reveal the role played by Chernobyl’s head of security, Valentin Viter, who is in detention and is being investigated for absenting himself from his post. An extract from the state register of pre-trial investigations, seen by Reuters, shows Viter is also suspected of treason, an allegation his lawyer says is unfounded. In a statement to investigators, Viter said that on the day of the invasion he spoke by phone with the National Guard unit commander. Viter advised the commander not to endanger his unit, telling him: “Spare your people.”

One source with direct knowledge of the Kremlin’s invasion plans told Reuters that Russian agents were deployed to Chernobyl last year to bribe officials and prepare the ground for a bloodless takeover. Reuters couldn’t independently verify the details of this assertion. However, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation has said it is investigating a former top intelligence official, Andriy Naumov, on suspicion of treason for passing Chernobyl security secrets to a foreign state. A lawyer for Naumov declined to comment.

At a national level, sources with knowledge of the Kremlin’s plans said Moscow was counting on activating sleeper agents inside the Ukrainian security apparatus. The sources confirmed Western intelligence reports that the Kremlin was lining up Oleg Tsaryov, a hotelier, to lead a puppet government in Kyiv. And a former Ukrainian prosecutor general disclosed to Reuters in June that Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, a friend of Putin, had an encrypted phone issued by Russia so he could communicate with the Kremlin.

FILE – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) attends a meeting with leader of Ukraine’s Opposition Platform – For Life party Viktor Medvedchuk in Saint Petersburg, Russia July 18, 2019.

Tsaryov said the Reuters account of how Moscow’s operation overall unfolded “has very little to do with reality.” He did not address his relationship with the Kremlin. A lawyer for Medvedchuk declined to comment. Medvedchuk is in a Ukrainian jail awaiting trial on treason charges that pre-date the Russian invasion.

Though Russia captured Chernobyl, its plan to take power in Kyiv failed. In many cases, the sleeper agents Moscow had installed failed to do their job, according to multiple sources in Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine Security Council Secretary Danilov said the agents and their handlers believed Ukraine was weak, which was “a total misconception.”

People the Kremlin counted on as its proxies in Ukraine overstated their influence in the years leading up to the invasion, said four of the sources with knowledge of the Kremlin’s preparations. The Kremlin relied in its planning on “clowns – they know a little bit, but they always say what the leadership wants to hear because otherwise they won’t get paid,” said one of the four, a person close to the Moscow-backed separatist leadership in eastern Ukraine.

Putin now finds himself in a protracted, full-scale war, fighting for every inch of territory at huge cost.

But the Russian intelligence infiltration did succeed in one way: It has sown mistrust inside Ukraine and laid bare the shortcomings of Ukraine’s near 30,000-strong Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, which shares a complicated history with Russia, and is now tasked with hunting down traitors and collaborators.

FILE – Members of the Security Service of Ukraine check the social media of a man suspected to be a Russian collaborator after he was detained at his home in Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 12, 2022.

This internal Ukrainian turmoil burst into partial view on July 17. In a video address to the nation, President Zelenskyy suspended SBU head Ivan Bakanov, whom he has known for years, citing the large number of SBU staff suspected of treason. Ukrainian law enforcement sources told Reuters that some SBU staff recounted in conversation with them that they were unable to reach Bakanov for several days after Russia invaded, adding to a sense of chaos in Kyiv. Bakanov didn’t respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Zelenskyy also said 651 cases of alleged treason and collaboration have been opened against individuals involved in law enforcement and in the prosecutor’s office. More than 60 officials from the SBU and the prosecutor general’s office are working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied zones, Zelenskyy added.

Asked to comment on Reuters’ findings, the Ukrainian presidential administration, the SBU and the prosecutor general’s office did not respond. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “All these questions have no relation whatsoever to us, therefore there is nothing for us to comment on here.” The Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, and the defense ministry did not respond to Reuters’ questions.

KGB ties

Moscow’s spy apparatus has been intertwined with Chernobyl for decades. After the 1986 disaster, when a reactor blew up scattering radioactive clouds across Europe, the Soviet KGB stepped in. More than 1,000 KGB staff took part in the clean-up, according to a declassified internal memo to a Ukrainian government minister, dated 1991. Then-KGB boss Viktor Chebrikov ordered his officers to recruit agents among the plant’s staff and instructed that a KGB officer should hold the post of deputy boss of the plant in charge of security, according to another memo – an internal KGB communication from 1986.

Even after Ukraine became independent in 1991, Moscow’s spy chiefs remained powerful there. The first head of Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service was Nikolai Golushko, who started his career in Soviet Russia. Before his appointment he led the Ukraine arm of the Soviet KGB. Golushko kept most of the Soviet-era officers in their jobs, he wrote in a 2012 memoir.

After four months as Ukraine’s spy chief, Golushko moved back to Moscow to rejoin KGB headquarters, and in 1993 became head of Russia’s newly created Federal Counter-Intelligence Service, precursor to today’s FSB.

In Moscow, Golushko received a visit from the deputy head of Ukraine’s State Security Service, Golushko wrote in the memoir. He recalled how Oleg Pugach, the Ukrainian official, asked for Golushko’s help finding fabric to make the uniforms for Ukraine’s intelligence officers. Golushko also wrote that Kyiv, short of its own resources and expertise, signed deals under which the SBU agreed to share intelligence information with Moscow. In exchange, Moscow provided supplies, technology and expert help with investigations. Reuters approached Golushko for comment. A colleague from an intelligence veterans’ group told Reuters Golushko, now 85, was in ill health and could not answer questions. Reuters was unable to reach Pugach and couldn’t independently confirm Golushko’s account.

Intelligence officers working at Chernobyl officially became part of Ukraine’s security apparatus in 1991, but they continued to take orders from Moscow, said the person with direct knowledge of the invasion plan. “In effect, these were FSB employees,” said the person. The SBU did not respond to questions about Chernobyl or historical ties to Russian intelligence.

FILE – A general view of the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine April 7, 2022.

The Chernobyl nuclear plant is a vast facility. A giant steel structure encases Reactor No. 4, ground zero of the 1986 disaster. The plant lies just 10 kilometers at the closest point from the border with Belarus, in a dense and highly irradiated forest. Russia’s war planners considered control of Chernobyl to be strategically important because it sat on the shortest route for their advance on Kyiv, according to Western military analysts.

The source with direct knowledge of the invasion plan said that in November 2021 Russia started sending undercover intelligence agents to Ukraine, tasked with establishing contacts with officials responsible for securing the Chernobyl power plant. The agents’ goal was to ensure there would be no armed resistance once Russian troops rolled in. The source said Chernobyl also served as a drop-off point for documents from SBU headquarters. In return for payment, Ukrainian officials handed Russian spies information about Ukraine’s military readiness.

Reuters could not independently verify details of the source’s account, and neither Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation nor the SBU responded to the news agency’s questions. But a review of Ukrainian testimony and court documents and an interview with a local official show that Kyiv is conducting at least three investigations into the conduct of people who worked at Chernobyl. The investigations have identified at least two people suspected of providing information to Russian agents or otherwise helping them seize the plant, according to these documents.

One of the men suspected by Ukrainian prosecutors and investigators of helping Russian forces is Valentin Viter, a 47-year-old colonel in the SBU. At the time of the Russian invasion, Viter was the deputy general-director of the plant responsible for its physical protection.

In May last year, Viter oversaw a routine training exercise that was meant to simulate an attack by armed saboteurs. Armed members of the National Guard unit that protects Chernobyl took part, and rehearsed repelling the attackers by force. Viter said the exercise was a success, according to a video interview posted shortly afterwards on the plant’s website. He also said he hoped Chernobyl’s security team would “not need to apply the knowledge and skills we acquired in a real-life situation.”

Viter was seconded from the SBU to work at Chernobyl as security chief in mid-2019, according to a statement he gave to investigators. In a further statement, he said that on Feb. 18 this year – six days before the Russian invasion – he went on sick leave with a respiratory problem.

By then, Russia was bolstering its troops in Belarus in preparation for an invasion, U.S. officials said at the time. Satellite images shot by U.S. satellite imagery company Maxar on Feb. 15 showed a military pontoon bridge under construction across the Pripyat River in Belarus, north of the power plant. Ukraine’s police, and the SBU, were on heightened alert in response to the Russian threat, and the national police chief said in a statement at the time that security was reinforced at the Chernobyl plant.

On the morning of the Russian invasion, Feb. 24, Viter said, in a statement to investigators, that he was at his home in Kyiv. He telephoned the head of the Chernobyl National Guard unit, who was at his post. By then, people at the plant knew a column of Russian armored vehicles was heading their way.

Viter, according to his testimony to Ukrainian investigators, told the commander, in Russian: “Spare your people.” Viter had no official authority over the National Guard, and Reuters could not determine whether the commander was heeding Viter’s words when the unit surrendered after discussions with the Russian invaders. A National Guard statement identified the unit commander as Yuriy Pindak.

FILE – Trenches dug by the Russian military are seen in an area with high levels of radiation called the Red Forest, near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine, April 16, 2022.

When the Russian soldiers finally retreated from Chernobyl after a 36-day occupation, they took Pindak and most of his unit away as captives. Ukraine says the guards are being held in Russia or Belarus. Russian officials did not comment on the unit’s whereabouts.

Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation is conducting a probe into whether the National Guard broke the law by laying down arms, said Yuriy Fomichev, mayor of the town of Slavutych where most of the Chernobyl workers live. Fomichev said he was not aware of anyone having been charged. The State Bureau of Investigation didn’t respond to Reuters’ questions about the matter.

The National Guard declined to comment on the actions of individual commanders and members of the unit tasked with protecting Chernobyl. “Fighting on the territory of nuclear facilities is prohibited by the Geneva Convention,” it said, adding that this was “one of the reasons” why there was no heavy fighting at the site. It referred questions about any investigation to the Bureau.

Article 56 of an additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions states that nuclear power plants and other dangerous installations should not be attacked.

Viter was arrested in western Ukraine and is now in pre-trial detention there on suspicion of absenting himself from his post. An extract from the court’s register, seen by Reuters, shows that law enforcement agents have initiated a second investigation into Viter for suspected treason by “deliberately assisting the military units of the aggressor country, the Russian Federation, in carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine.” They have yet to uncover evidence tying him to Russian special services.

Viter has said in court statements that he fled Kyiv for the safety of his family two days after Chernobyl was seized but tried to stay in contact with colleagues at the plant.

His lawyer, Oleksandr Kovalenko, said Viter had a legitimate reason for being off work and was unaware that he should stay at Chernobyl. The lawyer said any treason allegation was unfounded and Viter had not been served with a letter of suspicion, a step which usually precedes charges. According to the lawyer, Viter said “Spare your people” to remind the National Guard commander that many people depended on him. Viter did not discuss surrender, Kovalenko said. He added that investigators had not asked Viter about any exchange of documents at Chernobyl.

Cash and emeralds

The extent to which Russia infiltrated Chernobyl has focused Ukrainian authorities’ attention on the SBU, the agency Viter worked for, sources said. In particular, military prosecutors on Viter’s case are interested in his connection to a former Ukrainian official called Andriy Naumov, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation and a transcript of Viter’s questioning seen by Reuters.

Previously an official in the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, by 2018 Naumov had been appointed head of COTIZ, a state enterprise responsible for estate-management of the radioactive exclusion zone around Chernobyl. A major part of COTIZ’s role was to promote “extreme tourism” in the exclusion zone, but the enterprise also had a role in keeping the site secure, according to its website.

After his stint at Chernobyl, Naumov was made the head of the SBU’s department of internal security, a division that investigates other officers suspected of criminal activity. Last year, the agency said it thwarted an assassination attempt on Naumov by other SBU officers. Naumov was later fired as department chief, according to Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda and a law enforcement source.

Naumov vanished shortly before the invasion, a person in law enforcement said. He eventually turned up in Serbia in June. A Serbian police statement issued on June 8 said police and anti-corruption agents had arrested a Ukrainian citizen identified by the initials “A.N.” on the border with North Macedonia. He had been trying to cross into North Macedonia from Serbia. A search of the BMW in which he was a passenger uncovered $124,924 and 607,990 euros in cash, plus two emeralds, the statement said. It said the individual and the unnamed driver of the BMW, who was also detained, were suspected of intending to launder the cash and emeralds, which police believe originated from criminal activities. Volodymyr Tolkach, Ukraine’s ambassador to Serbia, publicly confirmed the arrested man was Naumov.

The State Bureau of Investigation confirmed a local media report that it is conducting a pre-trial investigation into Naumov for state treason. It said it was looking into whether Naumov collected information on the security set-up at Chernobyl while working at the plant and later at the SBU and passed it to a foreign state. The statement did not say what grounds it had for suspecting he passed on secrets or if it had specific evidence linking him to Russia.

On March 31, President Zelenskyy issued a decree stripping Naumov of his brigadier-general rank. The same day, the Ukrainian president announced in an emotional address that Naumov and another SBU general were “traitors” who violated their oath of allegiance to Ukraine. Zelenskyy did not make reference to Chernobyl.

Naumov remains in detention in Serbia and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer in Serbia, Viktor Gostiljac, declined to comment. The SBU did not reply to questions about Naumov.

Decapitation

For Russia’s war planners, seizing Chernobyl was just a stepping stone to the main objective: taking control of the Ukrainian national government in Kyiv. There, too, the Kremlin expected that undercover agents in positions of power would play a crucial part, according to four sources with knowledge of the plan.

Yuriy Lutsenko, who served as Ukraine’s prosecutor general from 2016 until 2019, revealed to Reuters that at the time he left the role “hundreds” of Defense Ministry employees were under surveillance, approved by his office, because they were suspected of ties to the Russian state. Lutsenko said he believed there were similar numbers of suspected spies in other ministries.

Russia’s war planners were also counting on other allies to help in the takeover, five sources said.

One of the most visible loyalists was Viktor Medvedchuk, a leader of Ukraine’s Opposition Platform – For Life party. Putin is god-father to one of Medvedchuk’s children. Since 2014, Medvedchuk has been a vocal opponent of the popular protests that called for closer ties to the European Union.

FILE – Pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk is seen in handcuffs while being detained by security forces in unknown location in Ukraine, in this handout picture released April 12, 2022.

Medvedchuk was charged with state treason on May 11, 2021. Investigators from the SBU alleged at the time that Medvedchuk passed secret details about Ukrainian military units to Russian officials, and intended to recruit Ukrainian agents and covertly influence Ukrainian politics. The day before the invasion, he left his home in Kyiv and was planning on leaving the country, in violation of the terms of his bail, according to the SBU.

Medvedchuk was detained on April 12, Zelenskyy announced that day. Zelenskyy immediately posted pictures of him handcuffed, in Ukrainian military fatigues and looking bedraggled. Medvedchuk has since been in detention.

Medvedchuk has denied the treason charges, saying they were falsified and part of a political plot against him. Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters on April 13 Medvedchuk had no back-channel communication with the Russian leadership.

Lutsenko, the former Ukraine prosecutor general, told Reuters that before the Russian invasion, Medvedchuk used an encrypted telephone that was issued to him by the Kremlin, equipment reserved only for the most senior Russian officials and pro-Russian separatist leaders. Lutsenko said Ukrainian investigators had managed to hack the encrypted phone system, without disclosing what they found.

Medvedchuk’s lawyer, Tetyana Zhukovska, declined to comment until a court has handed down a decision in the case. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office did not comment.

Another key figure, according to three sources familiar with the Russian plans, was Oleg Tsaryov, a square-jawed 52-year-old former member of Ukraine’s parliament. He was picked by Kremlin invasion planners to lead the new interim government they planned to install, these sources said. Their comments are the first confirmation from within Russia of U.S. intelligence assessments, reported by the Financial Times earlier this year, that Moscow was considering putting Tsaryov in a leadership role in a puppet government in Kyiv.

Tsaryov has been under Ukrainian and U.S. sanctions since 2014, when, after a bid to win election as Ukrainian president collapsed, he headed up a body called “Novorossiya,” or New Russia. The group pushed the idea of turning southeastern Ukraine into a separate pro-Russian statelet. By the start of this year, he was in Russian-annexed Crimea, where he owns two hotels.

In the early hours of Feb. 24, at the start of the invasion, Tsaryov told his more than 200,000 Telegram followers he had crossed into Kyiv-controlled territory. “I’m in Ukraine. Kyiv will be free from fascists.”

But Zelenskyy did not capitulate. Any expectations in Moscow that he would flee Kyiv or negotiate a deal that would cede to Russia’s demands soon evaporated. In the weeks that followed, Ukrainian forces halted Russian troops’ advance on Kyiv.

Tsaryov never made it to the capital. On June 10, he posted an advertisement to his Telegram followers for his seaside hotel in Crimea, where a one-night stay costs 1,500 rubles ($28) per person per night. Tsaryov is now spending his time in Crimea with visits to Moscow, according to his social media posts.

Paranoia and mistrust

Russia’s campaign of infiltration did, however, stir suspicion and mistrust at some levels of the Ukrainian state, which hampered its ability to govern, especially in the first few days after the invasion.

One stark incident that fueled the tensions in Kyiv’s power corridors related to the death in early March of Denys Kirieiev, a former bank executive, several sources said. He was a member of the Ukrainian delegation that took part in short-lived talks with Russian negotiators on the Ukraine-Belarus border, starting on Feb. 28. A photograph showed Kirieiev sitting alongside Ukrainian officials at the negotiating table.

An advisor to the Zelenskyy administration said, in an online interview, that officers from the SBU shot Kirieiev while trying to arrest him as a Russian spy.

But Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Agency said Kirieiev was its employee and intelligence officer, and that he died a hero while conducting an unspecified special assignment defending Ukraine. A source close to the Ukrainian military told Reuters that Kirieiev was indeed a spy working for Ukraine. He had access to the highest levels of the Russian leadership, this source said, and was feeding back valuable information on invasion plans and other matters to his handlers in Kyiv.

Amid the chaos early in the war, Bakanov, then the head of the SBU, left Kyiv for at least three days after the Russian invasion, according to three people in Ukrainian law enforcement. Two of these people said some SBU staff recounted they were unable to reach Bakanov for several days after Russia invaded. In suspending Bakanov on July 17, Zelenskyy cited an article in Ukraine’s Armed Forces statute, under which servicemen can be relieved of their duties for improper conduct leading to casualties or a threat of casualties.

Bakanov and the SBU did not respond to Reuters’ questions.

Zelenskyy, in his speech, stressed the toll Russian infiltration was taking on his embattled country by speaking of the numerous officials who have been accused of betraying Ukraine.

“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state … poses very serious questions to the relevant leaders,” Zelenskyy said.

“Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.”

Russian hackers broke into a World Anti-Doping Agency database and posted confidential medical data of prominent American athletes online.

WADA said Tuesday the attack — which targeted some female members of the United States team that competed at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics — was carried out by a “Russian cyber espionage group” called Fancy Bears.

The hackers revealed records of “Therapeutic Use Exemptions,” which allow athletes to use substances that are banned if there is a verified medical need.

The group’s website said it had information about a number of American athletes, including tennis sisters Serena and Venus Williams as well as multiple gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles and basketball star Elena Delle Donne.

“We will start with the U.S. team which has disgraced its name by tainted victories,” the group said, adding that more revelations about other teams were forthcoming.

Speaking on behalf of the Williams sisters, the International Tennis Federation said the players had been given permission to use the drugs.

Venus Williams wrote in a statement: “The applications for TUEs under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program require a strict process for approval which I have adhered to when serious medical conditions have occurred. The exemptions posted in the hacked report are reviewed by an anonymous, independent group of doctors, and approved for legitimate group of doctors.”

USA Gymnastics said in a statement that Biles, who won four gold medals in Rio, obtained the proper permission to take prescription medicine on the WADA banned list. Biles wrote on Twitter she takes medication for ADHD.

“By virtue of the TUE, Biles has not broken any drug-testing regulations, including at the Olympic Games in Rio,” the organization said. “Simone and everyone at USA Gymnastics believe in the importance of a level playing field for all athletes.”

The breach was decried as an illegal invasion of privacy and an attempt to discredit anti-doping authorities.

“These criminal acts are greatly compromising the effort by the global anti-doping community to re-establish trust in Russia,” World Anti-Doping Agency director general Olivier Niggli said in a statement.

WADA said it “extended its investigation with the relevant law enforcement authorities.”

US gold-medal-winning gymnast Simone BilesUPI

WADA previously warned of cyberattacks after its investigators published reports into Russian state-sponsored doping.

Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying any possible Russian government or secret service participation in the hacking was “out of question.”

Last month, hackers obtained a database password for Russian runner Yuliya Stepanova, a whistleblower and key witness for the WADA investigations. She and her husband, a former official with the Russian national anti-doping agency, are now living at an undisclosed location in north America.

The International Olympic Committee said it “strongly condemns such methods which clearly aim at tarnishing the reputation of clean athletes.”

“The IOC can confirm however that the athletes mentioned did not violate any anti-doping rules during the Olympic Games Rio 2016,” the Olympic body said.

Niggli said: “WADA deeply regrets this situation and is very conscious of the threat that it represents to athletes whose confidential information has been divulged through this criminal act. We are reaching out to stakeholders … regarding the specific athletes impacted.”

Those behind the breach have adopted the name “Fancy Bears,” an apparently tongue-in-cheek reference to a collection of hackers which many security researchers have long associated with Russia.

In a statement posted to its website early Tuesday, the group proclaimed its allegiance to Anonymous, the loose-knit movement of online mischief-makers, and said it hacked WADA to show the world “how Olympic medals are won.”

Internet records suggest Fancy Bears’ data dump has been in the works for at least two weeks; their website was registered on Sept. 1 and their Twitter account was created on Sept. 6. Messages left with the group were not immediately returned.

With AP and Reuters

Simone Biles is the golden girl, interrupted, of the Tokyo Olympics.

America’s beloved gymnast announced July 27 that she was withdrawing from the team competition following a “stunning breakdown” at the long-delayed 2020 Olympics, citing mental health issues — and not an injury — that were exacerbated by the pressure to be “head star” at the Summer Games.

After her unexpected departure, the USA women’s gymnastics team ended up taking home the silver medal without 24-year-old Biles, a four-time Olympic gold medalist.

However, the decision to focus on competing for her own well-being instead of medals — while jarring to many US fans — wasn’t a complete shock to some diehard Biles followers.

After a fraught performance at Tokyo prelims on July 26, Biles already seemed to be hinting at a struggle. She opened up on Instagram, saying: “I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world upon my shoulders at times.”

Simone Biles announced July 27 that she was withdrawing from the team competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, citing mental health issues.AFP; Getty Images

She continued, “I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but sometimes it’s hard, hahaha! The Olympics is no joke.”

And at a press conference after her teammates’ silver medal win on July 27, Biles hinted at a more serious weight on her shoulders.

“Whenever you get in a high-stress situation, you kind of freak out. I have to focus on my mental health and not jeopardize my health and well-being,” she said.

“We have to protect our body and our mind … It just sucks when you’re fighting with your own head.”

But Biles clearly hid the full inner turmoil she was experiencing — a private agony that bubbled to the surface on July 27 when she formally withdrew from the team competition.

“There’s more to life than just gymnastics,” Biles told reporters at a press conference alongside her teammates. “It’s very unfortunate that it happened at this stage, because I definitely wanted it to go a little bit better. [I will] take it one day at a time and we’re gonna see how the rest goes.”

Simone Biles of Team United States competes on vault during the women’s team final on day four of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on July 27.Getty Images

USA Gymnastics released a statement July 27 declaring that Biles’ withdrawal following her vault rotation was due to an unspecified “medical issue” and she would “be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions.”

Biles countered that her only injury was “just a little to my pride … physically, I feel good, I’m in shape,” she told NBC’s Hoda Kotb. “Emotionally, that kind of varies on the time and the moment.”

The gymnast also said her main inspiration to “focus on my well-being” was tennis ace Naomi Osaka, who shocked fans by pulling out of this year’s French Open and skipping Wimbledon due to stress, triggered by the mandatory press conferences after each match.

Biles also follows in the footsteps of 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, who revealed in 2018 that he suffers from depression and crippling anxiety.

Her path to Olympic glory has been a challenging one. Here is a look back at all the times Biles has been open about her mental health struggles, including her childhood experiences, living with ADHD and the abuse she suffered at the hands of disgraced gymnastics trainer Larry Nassar.

Simone Biles is consoled by coaches Cecile Landi and Laurent Landi after stumbling on the landing while competing in vault at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Getty Images

She was in foster care as a child

Biles was traumatized during her early childhood in Spring, Texas, when her birth mother, Shannon Biles, became unable to care for her and her three siblings. The foursome went in and out of foster care, but Biles was adopted in 2003 by her loving maternal grandfather and his wife. The pair have long encouraged her passion for gymnastics. In her 2016 memoir, “Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance,” the sportswoman discussed the disruption to her formative years, writing: “my biological mom was suffering from drug and alcohol abuse and she was in and out of jail, I never had mom to run to.”

The Russian gold medal team stands on the podium near the silver-winning US team — including Simone Biles — at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on July 27.REUTERS

Her high school peers were bullies

As a teen whose intense training schedule led to peak fitness, she developed somewhat bulky muscles. As a result, Biles was bullied at school. In an appearance on the “Today” show four years ago, she recalled that classmates would make derogatory comments about her athletic figure.

“People would say mean things to me all the time,” she said. “They used to call me a ‘swoldier,’ which didn’t make me feel the best. I wore sweaters or jackets all year to cover my arms.”

Simone Biles competes on the balance beam at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on July 25.AFP via Getty Images

She was treated by a sports psychologist at 16

After a poor performance at the 2013 US Classic, Biles’ confidence plummeted. She consulted Houston-based sports psychologist Robert B. Andrews, who helped her manage her nerves and use her excitement to improve her skills.

“After working with Robert, I was able to recover and get my confidence back,” she said in a joint interview with Andrews in 2014. The expert also taught her ways to “calm down” after competing. “I found that I was getting too intense,” Biles admitted. “Working with Robert also helped ease my fears and I found more confidence.”

Simone Biles competes in the artistic gymnastics vault event on July 25 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.AFP via Getty Images

Her ADHD diagnosis was made public by hackers

In 2016, hackers managed to access Biles’ health records and released unauthorized, previously unknown details about her mental health. They exposed her as having ADHD, a condition for which she was prescribed medication.

Biles came out fighting, taking to Twitter to explain she was not cowed by the diagnosis. She defiantly posted: “Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing that I’m afraid to let people know.”

Discussing the disorder in an NPR interview, Biles said: “At a very young age, I didn’t realize what the diagnosis was. But it was a very good outing for me to get some energy out and then come home tired, do some homework and go to bed easier.” She added that she never saw it as a disability: “Other kids have it as well. And it’s just we’re more active and hyper than them, and I never think of that as a downfall. If anything, I see it as a cool thing ’cause, like, we have more energy.”

She revealed she was abused by Larry Nassar

Larry Nassar listens during his 2018 sentencing in Michigan.AP

In 2018, Biles revealed she was one of the more than 100 female gymnasts who accused team doctor Larry Nassar of molestation.

Besides saying the abuse brought about suicidal thoughts, she released a lengthy statement on her social media platforms. It was posted the day before a sentencing hearing at which Vassar heard victim impact statements.

“Most of you know me as a happy, giggly and energetic girl. But lately … I’ve felt a bit broken and the more I try to shut off the voice in my head the louder it screams,” Biles wrote.

Her brother almost went to jail

Biles’ brother, Tevin Biles Thomas, was charged in the fatal shooting of three people at a New Year’s Eve party in Cleveland, Ohio. He was later acquitted.Twitter: @Simone_Biles

If 2018 wasn’t bad enough, Biles endured another family crisis. Tevin Biles Thomas, the golden girl’s older brother, was charged in the fatal shooting of three people at a New Year’s Eve party in Cleveland, Ohio. He was ultimately acquitted this spring after a judge agreed with defense lawyers that there was insufficient evidence to justify a guilty verdict.

The pandemic put her ambitions on hold

Like many athletes with their hearts set on competing in the 2020 Olympics, Biles’ dreams were dashed when the country locked down in March 2020.

In an interview with Glamour, Biles “sat idle” for seven weeks and became depressed and thought of quitting.

“I wanted to give up,” Biles told the mag. “But it would have been dumb because I’ve worked way too hard.”

A masked Simone Biles lowers her head in Japan on July 27.REUTERS

(CNN)Gymnast Simone Biles, who disclosed her mental health struggles during the Tokyo Olympics, says she’s “still scared to do gymnastics.”

In an emotional interview on NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday, Biles said she’s still struggling with the “twisties” as she performs on her Gold Over America Tour. The twisties is a mental block where competitors can lose track of where they are while in midair.

“I don’t twist (on tour). I do double lay half-outs, which is my signature move on the floor. That’s never affected me. But everything else weighs so heavy, and I watch the girls do it, and it’s not the same,” said Biles, arguably the greatest gymnast of all time.

“But the twisting, once I got back, will come back. But I’m still scared to do gymnastics,” she added.

Biles, 24, who has won seven Olympic medals, including four golds, battled mental health issues and the unexpected loss of a family member during the Summer Games.

CNN’s Jill Martin and Jack Bantock contributed to this report

Simone Biles stunned the world once again on Wednesday when she withdrew from the individual all-round gymnastics final at the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental health – just 24 hours after pulling out of the team event. 

The 24-year-old athlete dropped out of the team competition in Tokyo yesterday after flubbing her vault, her first event of the day. Her surprise exit cleared the way for Russia to claim the gold in a dramatic upset that saw Team USA come in second place for the first time in over a decade. 

On Wednesday it was announced the four-time gold medal winner would not compete in Thursday night’s individual all-round final. 

‘After further medical evaluation, Simone Biles has withdrawn from the final individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games, in order to focus on her mental health,’ USA Gymnastics said in a statement.

Michelle Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Chelsea Handler, and Hoda Kotb were among the celebrities who took to Twitter to show their support for Biles, who was praised for shining a spotlight on the importance of mental health.

Fellow athletes also spoke out after Biles’s most recent announcement to praise the gymnast for taking a stand. 

‘Someone said it best. @Simone_Biles already won. She is a class act. Withdrew from team [competition] after vault… stayed and cheered on her teammates… got them chalk for their hands.. encouraged.. hugged them. She already won. Congrats on the silver medal!’ tweeted Kotb, who is in Toyko covering the Olympic Games for NBC.

Handler commented: ‘@Simone_Biles drew a boundary for herself and her health on the world stage. This is real superhuman strength, setting an example for all of us.’ 

While DeGeneres wrote: ‘@Simone_Biles, you’re solid gold in my book.’

Biles even received words of support from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who insisted the gymnast is still the ‘Greatest of All Time.’ 

‘Gratitude and support are what @Simone_Biles deserves,’ Psaki tweeted from her personal account. ‘Still the GOAT and we are all just lucky to be able to see her in action. And congrats and tks to the tough as nails #TeamUSA @sunisalee_ , @ChilesJordan , @grace_mccallum2 for being role models and champs.’

But critics were less sympathetic to the pressure that Biles was under and claimed that she had ‘abandoned’ her teammates on the world stage when they were counting on her. 

‘A team captain just doesn’t simply abandon ship when it is navigating rough seas. What Simone Biles did is not what a team captain does in a middle of a competition. Disappointing!’ one person wrote. 

Someone else added: ‘Simone Biles seems to be very unconcerned or apologetic about choosing to abandon her team and her country’s hopes for a Gold medal in gymnastics.’

‘Medical issue? Sort of looked like Simone Biles gave up in anger after her vault landing wasn’t perfect and abandoned the team in a huff of disappointment,’ another claimed. ‘I’m sure the pressure was immense but she walked out on her team mid-event.’

Others admitted they were disappointed by Biles’ exit, but they didn’t blame her for what happened and wished her the best going forward. 

‘If I’m honest, my first reaction was disappointment,’ one fan tweeted. ‘But I have no idea what it must feel like, to carry the hopes and expectations of an entire country on your shoulders. I pray for your courage and strength @Simone_Biles . May you rediscover joy in the sport you love.’

Another shared: ‘Thoughts on @Simone_Biles withdrawing from the Olympics. I was disappointed, for me, that I didn’t get to see the GOAT compete. But my disappointment was NOT in her! 2 different mindsets. She has carried the USA & world gymnastics for a decade! How could we be disappointed in her?’  

A number of people have drawn comparisons to tennis star Naomi Osaka, 23, pulling out of the French Open earlier this year because of her own mental health struggles. 

When Biles spoke to reporters about her decision, she explained that she withdrew from the competition ‘to focus on [her] wellbeing.’

‘And you know, there’s more to life than just gymnastics,’ she added, shrugging. ‘It is very unfortunate that it has to happen at this stage because I definitely wanted this Olympics to go a little bit better but again, we’ll take it one day at a time and we’re going to see how the rest goes.’ 

It is currently unclear whether Biles will compete in the five individual event finals, which begin on Thursday with the all-around competition. 

The gymnast also insisted that her decision to pull out of the competition after just one of four events was made, in part, to help her team, saying that she ‘didn’t want to risk the team medal’ with her ‘screw up.’ 

‘I thought it was best that these girls took over the job which they absolutely did,’ she said, adding that the shock upset made them ‘stronger’ as a team. ‘They are Olympic silver medalists now and they should be really proud of themselves now for how well they did last minute.’ 

Biles claimed a silver medal alongside her teammates, who were on the verge of tears when she withdrew, but she insisted the second-place finish was their win.  

She gave full credit to the other three members of Team USA, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Grace McCallum, saying: ‘This medal is all of them and the coaches and nothing to do with me.’

Biles admitted that she is ‘dealing with some things internally,’ but she seemed focused on returning to competition in time for the all-around final, having gone into the Olympics as the favorite to win the gold. 

‘I’m OK,’ Simone said. ‘Just dealing with some things internally which will get fixed out in the next couple of days.’ 

When asked by the BBC whether she is planning to take part in the upcoming all-around final in two days, she replied simply: ‘Yes.’ 

However, when speaking to the Today show, Biles confessed that her determination to take part in the event — where she would be defending her championship title — is not enough to cement her place in the lineup, saying: ‘We’re going to take it day by day, and we’re just going to see.’  

She added: ‘Physically, I feel good, I’m in shape. Emotionally, that kind of varies on the time and moment. Coming to the Olympics and being head star isn’t an easy feat, so we’re just trying to take it one day at a time and we’ll see.’ 

While opening up about her determination to prioritize her mental health, Biles praised other athletes, like Osaka, who have spoken out about their own struggles, insisting that it has become a more important issue than ever.

She suggested that sports stars who are grappling with these kinds of issues are more likely to injure themselves during competition. 

‘I have to focus on my mental health,’ she said. ‘I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now…we have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.’

She admitted that her confidence has taken a serious knock as a result of her mental health issues, confessing: ‘I don’t trust myself as much anymore…maybe it’s getting older. There were a couple of days when everybody tweets you and you feel the weight of the world. 

‘We’re not just athletes, we’re people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back. ‘I didn’t want to go out and do something stupid and get hurt. I feel like a lot of athletes speaking up has really helped. It’s so big, it´s the Olympic Games, at the end of the day we don´t want to be carried out of there on a stretcher.

‘You have to be there 100 per cent or 120 per cent or you’re going to hurt yourself.’  

In a poignant twist, Simone’s sensational exit from the team final came just hours after Osaka, who is representing her home nation of Japan at the Tokyo Games, crashed out of the Olympic competition in the third round in yet another dramatic upset.   

Biles’ withdrawal from the competition followed her uncharacteristic error on vault that saw her almost fall backwards. 

She made history earlier this year when she became the first-ever female gymnast to perform the incredibly risky and complicated Yurchenko double pike vault.   

Biles was supposed to execute the Yurchenko vault with two-and-a-half twists in the final, but she bailed out at the last second and only performed one-and-a-half twists, resulting in a much lower starting score.    

To add insult to injury, her knees then buckled on the landing, propelling her towards the mat, although she narrowly avoided falling to the ground. 

Her resulting score — 13.766 — is the lowest she has received in years. During qualifications, she received a score of 15.183. 

Speaking about the mistake in a post-event press conference, Biles confessed that she felt as though she had ‘robbed’ her teammates of a fighting chance to claim the gold.

‘It’s really unfortunate to have a score like that go up there for the team. I feel I robbed them,’ she said. ‘We could have been a little bit higher in the rankings. I didn’t do my job. They came out and they stepped up. They did what they needed to do.’ 

After completing the skill, she was seen going into a quick huddle with her coach, Cecile Landi, which appears to be the moment that she decided to withdraw from the competition. 

She left the stadium with her trainer and was closely followed by medical staff, sparking fears that she had sustained a serious injury. Moments later, it was announced that she had been pulled out of Team USA’s uneven bars lineup, and shortly after, it was revealed that she had been taken out of the competition altogether. 

When she returned, she put on her tracksuit over her leotard in a move that confirmed her exit from the competition.   

Video captured the moment that the gymnast shared the news with her three teammates, telling them that she was ‘sorry,’ but insisting that they were ‘going to do great’ because they had ‘been training for this their whole lives.’

News of Simone’s exit from the competition sent shockwaves around the arena and left commentators stunned, with Kotb, who is close friends with the gymnast, tearing up as she discussed the news with her Today show co-hosts.  

Biles’ former Olympic teammate Laurie Hernandez, who competed alongside her in Rio in 2016 but missed out on a spot at the trials for this year’s Games, also expressed support for the star gymnast, sending her well wishes for a speedy recovery. 

‘At the end of the day, mentally, physically, we just want to make sure that she’s OK,’ Hernandez said while helping to provide commentary on the competition.   

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, who competed with Biles and Hernandez in Rio, also weighed in on her former teammate’s shock withdrawal from the competition, telling Today: ‘I feel sick to my stomach; it’s horrible. I’m obviously praying that she’ll be able to compete in the all-around final.’ 

She added: ‘You know, she’s human, and I think sometimes people forget that. And Simone, just like everyone else, is doing the best that she can.’

Meanwhile, Olympic gymnast MyKayla Skinner voiced concerns for Biles’ shocking vault error and exit from the team event, saying: ‘My heart broke for her; I can’t imagine what she’s going through.’

Skinner, who competed in the Olympics as an individual and not a member of Team USA, had her own heartbreak this week when she failed to qualify for any individual event finals.  

Speaking about Biles’ error on vault, the 24-year-old added: ‘I don’t really know what happened…I’m not sure if she hurt something recently.’ 

Initially, only Biles and McCallum had been expected to take part in the all-around, meaning that they were the only two gymnasts who would have competed on all four events: vault, uneven bars, beam, and floor exercise. 

Instead, Chiles was forced to replace Biles on the uneven bars and the balance beam, while Lee stepped into her shoes on the floor. 

As well as the added pressure on Team USA’s other three athletes, the squad’s overall score also took a huge hit. Biles’ routines on all four events are typically among those with the highest potential points, particularly when it comes to the vault, beam, and floor exercise. 

Even on the uneven bars, which is usually her worst event, she is leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of her competitors, a fact that she proved by qualifying for the individual event final. 

Despite the devastating result of her personal performance in the final, Biles made heroic efforts to keep her spirits up, and she was seen joking and laughing with Chiles.

Following the third rotation, the U.S. was trailing Russia by just eight-tenths of a point, having put in a tremendous performance on the beam, where Biles is typically the highest-scoring athlete. 

However, Team USA’s hopes of finishing in first place suffered another dramatic blow when Chiles fell during her floor routine, resulting in a score of just 11.7, effectively ending the squad’s chances of winning.   

In an Instagram post shared shortly after the team final came to a close, Biles once again praised her teammates for their performance.

‘I’m SO proud of these girls right here,’ she wrote, while sharing an image of the four-woman squad proudly posing with their silver medals.

‘You girls are incredibly brave & talented! I’ll forever be inspired by your determination to not give up and to fight through adversity! They stepped up when I couldn’t. thanks for being there for me and having my back! forever love y’all.’