Ukraine’s security service (SBU) announced the detention of two more suspected Russian spies, who allegedly provided critical intelligence enabling Moscow’s missile strikes against military and civilian targets. Among the locations cased by the FSB agents were the Kyiv TV tower and Ukrainian army headquarters units.
According to the SBU’s statement, the arrests come over two years after the Russian accomplices first conducted surveillance identifying potential high-value sites like the capital’s TV transmission infrastructure, power plants, and strategic army positions. The suspects were preparing missile attacks on military units of the Defense Forces and energy and telecommunications facilities in three regions, as per the SBU.
SBU says the agents targeted army units safeguarding the Army’s General Staff, collected data on Defense Forces in Poltava Oblast, and surveilled critical infrastructure in Kyiv like the TV tower and the thermoelectric power plant.
“One of the perpetrators, a technology engineer at an Odesa food company supplying Ukraine’s military, had infiltrated his workplace to monitor troop movements and concentrations in Poltava Oblast,” the SBU said.
Another suspect, a 24-year-old Kyiv resident, allegedly provided information on the technical condition of the Kyiv TV tower after it was damaged in the 2022 missile strike and photographed a thermal power plant supplying electricity and heat to the capital region.
This data was allegedly sought by Russia to plan subsequent strikes on the power plant and TV tower, SBU says.
“At the end of January this year, they were remotely recruited by an FSB officer in Moscow and Moscow region. The SBU has already identified him. Both agents acted separately from each other and received a monetary “reward” from Russia for their cooperation in favor of the aggressor country,” SBU says.
The Agency says they received cash payments for their espionage efforts pinpointing locations like army bases housing General Staff units, the TV tower, and electrical grid components across Kyiv, Odesa, and Poltava oblasts.
The SBU says its counterintelligence officers apprehended the two red-handed as they continued surveillance of designated targets. The Ukrainian security service says it tracked the agents’ communications with their Russian handler.
Both perpetrators are in custody, facing charges of treason under martial law that carry potential life sentences, the SBU stated.
SBU says it caught Russian saboteurs red-handed planting railway explosive
Not only spies
Yesterday, the SBU reported that it caught two suspected Russian agents red-handed as they were planting an improvised explosive device near the railroad track and electric lines powering the rolling stock in Poltava Oblast.
The Agency is also actively involved in hostilities on the front, with its special operations units regularly destroying Russian weapons and equipment, using aerial drones.
Additionally, the SBU is involved in sabotage campaigns in Russia, targeting military infrastructure.
For example, last November, the SBU orchestrated an explosion inside the Severomaisky tunnel in Buryatia, Russia. The next day, another explosion occurred on a crucial bridge along the Baikal-Amur Railway, marking the second phase of the operation.
Alongside Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence, the SBU is also involved in a strategic bombing campaign deep inside Russia, and in Ukraine’s efforts to destroy Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, using maritime drones.
Read also:
- SBU says it caught Russian saboteurs red-handed planting railway explosive
- SBU blocks batch of drone and missile components destined for Russia
- Polish court convicts 14 Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians of spying for Russia
- Ukraine disrupts Russian fuel supply with strikes on oil refineries
