A Russian GRU agent has been sentenced to prison for plotting to blow up a gas pipeline in eastern Ukraine
In Ukraine, a Russian military intelligence agent who was planning to blow up a main gas pipeline and spying on the Armed Forces in the east of the country has been sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.
This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine.
According to the investigation, the man was acting on orders from Russia’s GRU and was tasked with planting a homemade explosive device near a key section of the gas networks that supply heat to the Kharkiv and Poltava regions.
SBU officers exposed the agent and detained him back in November 2025, when he had already prepared the explosives and was about to install them at the site of the planned terrorist attack.
The investigation established that the recruited agent was an unemployed resident of Kharkiv who had come to the attention of Russian intelligence services due to anti-Ukrainian comments on Telegram channels.
After being recruited, the man maintained contact with representatives of the Russian GRU through a militant from the armed formations of the aggressor country’s Southern Military District. Following instructions from his handlers, he independently constructed an explosive device using improvised materials.
In addition to preparing the terrorist attack, the agent also gathered information about the locations and movements of Ukrainian military personnel in Kharkiv and near the front line.
During searches, law enforcement officers seized the finished explosive device, as well as a smartphone containing evidence of collaboration with Russian intelligence services.
The court found the man guilty under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, including treason, the illegal manufacture and storage of explosive devices, and preparation for a terrorist attack.
Earlier, the Counterintelligence Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine detained a Russian agent in Odesa who, according to the investigation, was planning the assassination of a high-ranking official in the Ukrainian Navy.
Previously, the SBU’s military counterintelligence, in cooperation with the State Bureau of Investigations, exposed another agent of the Russian special services within the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Security Service of Ukraine neutralized a Russian military intelligence agent in the Donetsk region who was planning shelling attacks on Kramatorsk and destroying property belonging to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The SBU detained teenagers whom Russia had recruited for terrorist attacks in schools
The SBU also detained a Russian agent who was directing airstrikes on Sloviansk.
As a reminder, the SBU has referred the case of Andriy Parubiy’s murder to court.
