SBU Exposes Russian Spy Operating Within Ukrainian Armed Forces In Kharkiv

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) The SBU said this in a statement seen by Ukrinform.

One of those detained is a local man who was mobilized into a Ukrainian Territorial Defense brigade. He was working for Russian military intelligence, better known as the GRU, and was passing information to the enemy from "inside" the Ukrainian military.

The investigation established that Russian intelligence recruited the Kharkiv resident through his neighbor, a professor at a Kharkiv university whom the SBU exposed in March this year for adjusting Russian strikes on the city.

After the university lecturer was detained, the suspect, acting on orders from the enemy, joined the Ukrainian military, where he was assigned as a reserve soldier in a reserve company of a combat unit.

There, under the guise of official trips, the agent monitored the locations of Ukrainian air defense and electronic warfare units, as well as defensive fortifications around Kharkiv.

Read also: SBU arrests National Guard officer accused of leaking combat information to Russia's military intelligence

He also marked the locations of local combined heat and power plants and key electrical substations supplying the city and surrounding areas on Google Maps.

The suspect later recruited his unemployed wife to cooperate with the enemy. Initially, she walked around the city to identify locations where Ukrainian troops were based and passed the intelligence to her husband. She later reported directly to her Russian handler.

The man's next assignment was to undergo training as an unmanned systems operator and hand over to Russian intelligence materials obtained during the training.

After completing the courses, the serviceman hoped to receive a promotion to a position in a UAV unit, which would allow him to expand his espionage activities in favor of the aggressor state.

SBU officers exposed the agent couple, documented their criminal activities step by step and detained both suspects: the man during another intelligence-gathering mission and his wife at their place of residence.

During searches, investigators seized 12 smartphones, four laptops and two tablets, which the suspects regularly switched in order to maintain covert communications with the Russian GRU.

SBU investigators notified both detainees that they were suspected of violating Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – high treason committed under martial law.

The suspects are being held in custody without the right to bail. They face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.

Photo: SBU

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