A cleric of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) directed Iskander missiles at Odessa; he was detained
The Counterintelligence Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine has detained yet another agent of Russian military intelligence (GRU) in Odesa.
He turned out to be a priest at one of the churches of the local diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) who had been officially recruited by the enemy.
The cleric directly coordinated a bloody double strike with ballistic missiles on the regional center in March 2024.
At that time, using the traitor’s precise coordinates, Russian occupiers attacked a recreational area of the port city with two Iskander-M ballistic missiles.
The first struck residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in the regional center, where, according to the spotter, Ukrainian military personnel might have been present.
The second insidious strike hit the same location as emergency services were rushing to the scene.
After the strike, the agent “reported” to the Russian group on the results of the Russian airstrike and “lay low” to avoid exposure.
“However, this did not help him. SBU officers established the priest’s involvement in directing the shelling of Odesa and detained him at his residence,” the SBU press center stated.
As the investigation established, the cleric came to the attention of the Russians due to his active pro-Kremlin comments on the Telegram messenger.
After being recruited, the priest, without removing his cassock, walked around the city to mark the geolocations of potential “targets” on Google Maps.
He transmitted the collected information to a special chatbot administered by the traitor Serhiy Lebedev (alias “Lokhmaty”), who is currently in hiding in Donetsk.
In addition, the agent provided the enemy with the exact coordinates of the locations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ air defense forces and assets that were protecting the skies over the Odesa region.
The cleric also “leaked” information to the occupiers about one of the power substations near Odesa, and after the strike, he informed his handlers about the consequences of the attack.
A man was detained in Kyiv for attempting to rape a woman
Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine prevented another terrorist attack in Kharkiv by detaining a married couple of Russian agents who were preparing an explosion in the city center.
As a reminder, the SBU detained a Russian strike coordinator in Chernivtsi.
The SBU also exposed a Russian spy network that was planning terrorist attacks using teenagers.
