A Russian agent who was passing on information about the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was exposed in the Kharkiv region

The Security Service of Ukraine detained a resident of the village of Pyatihirsk in the Izyum District of Kharkiv Oblast who was passing intelligence information about the locations of Ukrainian military personnel to Russian intelligence services. The man used Telegram to communicate with the enemy.

The operation was carried out by SBU cyber experts under the procedural guidance of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

“He has been notified of his status as a suspect in the dissemination of information regarding the locations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, committed under martial law (Part 2 of Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The suspect has been placed in pretrial detention,” the press service of the regional prosecutor’s office reported.

According to the SBU, the man came to the attention of Russian intelligence agents through a Telegram dating chat. To recruit him, they created a fake account for a woman who established contact with the Kharkiv region resident and coordinated his subsequent actions.

“To recruit the man, they (Russian intelligence agencies—IF-U) created a fake account for a woman who established contact with him and coordinated his criminal activities. It has been documented that, acting on the instructions of an acquaintance, the suspect surveyed the area to identify and report to the enemy the locations where Ukrainian troops and military equipment were concentrated. In addition, the suspect tracked the main routes of Defense Forces armored convoys heading toward the front lines for the Russians,” the SBU statement reads.

After his reconnaissance missions, the suspect recorded voice messages for his “online girlfriend” containing detailed descriptions of military facilities in the frontline zone.

In particular, he provided information on:

• the movement of military equipment;
• the temporary locations of Ukrainian servicemen;
• the locations of machine-gun emplacements;
• the positions of air defense forces protecting a local compressor station from enemy attacks.

The Russian military could have used the intelligence obtained to plan precision strikes against the positions of Ukrainian defenders.

The man was notified of the charges against him under Part 2 of Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The court ordered him to be held in custody as a preventive measure.

This was reported by the press service of the regional prosecutor’s office.

Earlier, the Counterintelligence Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine detained a Russian agent who had been on the run from justice for over a year and a half following a terrorist attack in Dnipro that resulted in one fatality. The detainee was charged with committing a terrorist act.

Previously, the Counterintelligence Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine detained a Russian agent in the Kyiv region who, on behalf of the FSB, had been gathering intelligence to target local energy facilities. The suspect turned out to be a driver for a logistics company who was also tracking the locations of Defense Forces repair bases.

The SBU’s Counterintelligence Service detained a man in the Khmelnytskyi region who is suspected of passing on the coordinates of military units, defense enterprises, and postal terminals to Russian intelligence.

The Military Counterintelligence Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with the State Bureau of Investigation, exposed a military servicemember recruited by the FSB who was passing on the coordinates of Ukrainian military facilities on the southern front to Russia. To conceal his communications with the Russian intelligence service, the agent changed 77 phone numbers and used 18 smartphones.