Spy couple sentenced to 15 years each for directing missile strikes on Odesa
A court sentenced a married couple who were agents of Russian military intelligence (GRU) and who directed missile strikes on Odesa and the surrounding region to 15 years in prison with confiscation of their property. They were detained by SBU officers back in December 2022.
According to the investigation, the spies’ primary targets were Ukrainian air defense positions and logistics facilities of the Defense Forces. The man, a Russian citizen who had previously participated in combat operations in Chechnya, was recruited by Russian intelligence even before the start of the full-scale invasion. He enlisted his wife—a native of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Oblast—in his espionage activities.
After February 24, 2022, the couple gathered information on Ukrainian military facilities, attempted to recruit a Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemember to obtain the coordinates of air defense systems and logistics centers, and also extracted the necessary data from acquaintances during personal conversations.
The agents marked the obtained coordinates on Google Maps and transmitted them to representatives of Russian military intelligence via a liaison officer.
The court found them guilty of espionage committed by a group of individuals acting in concert (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 114 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Source: SBU.
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