Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence successfully conducted a special operation codenamed “Barynia” to recruit a Russian career military officer as a double agent, Ukrinform reported citing Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) announcement during the briefing.
“As a result of the special operation ‘Barynia,’ Lt. Danila Alfyorov, a contract service member of the Russian Federation, went over to the Ukrainian side,” GUR spokesman Andrii Yusov said at a briefing.
According to Yusov, since June 2023, Alfyorov actively cooperated with Ukraine’s Security and Defense Forces as well as military intelligence. He convinced and transferred 11 Russian servicemen as prisoners of war in several batches.
When Alfyorov’s life was threatened, Ukraine conducted an operation to extract him to Ukrainian territory securely, Yusov explained. Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces carried out the transportation of Alfyorov to Ukraine-controlled land.
Alfyorov stated that he had contacted the Ukrainian side through the “Want to Live” project, which encourages Russian soldiers to surrender. “The Ukrainian side offered me to find Russian military personnel who want to surrender as POWs under the ‘Want to Live’ program,” he said.
“During the period of cooperation, I managed to bring three groups of military personnel to captivity. After I began to be suspected, I told my handler from ‘Want to Live’ that I was done. Once on Ukrainian territory and having met the Ukrainian special forces, I underwent all the procedures envisaged for captured Russian military personnel,” Alfyorov said.
In total, Alfyorov convinced 11 Russian servicemen to surrender over the course of his collaboration with the GUR. Its coordinating headquarters reported that the “Want to Live” project helps Russian soldiers safely surrender to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In August, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter pilot landed on a Ukrainian air base in a planned defection. The incident was the culmination of a secret plot by the Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence. The Russian pilot, 28-year-old Maksim Kuzminov, will receive a reward of $500,000, according to the law signed by the President of Ukraine in April 2022, which stipulates appropriate compensation if a Russian military goes over to the side of Ukraine with equipment.
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