According to its own statements, the Ukrainian domestic intelligence service SBU has arrested a deserter who is alleged to have passed on locations of the Ukrainian army to the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB. As the news agency Ukrinform reports, citing the SBU, thanks to the rapid intervention more than 100 Ukrainian drone operators were evacuated from the possible attack area in advance and the man was arrested.
The accused left the army without authorisation and travelled to Kyiv Oblast, where he spied for the FSB on the situation of logistics centres of the Ukrainian army, on which Russia was preparing missile and air strikes, the SBU announced. He was arrested near an important depot in Kyiv Oblast. According to the investigation, he had already been recruited by the FSB before his conscription into the armed forces. Initially he completed “test tasks” and observed facilities of the fuel and energy complex in northern Ukraine; later the FSB instructed him to have himself mobilised in order to spy “from within”.
During his training as a drone operator, he collected personal data of the leadership and personnel of the training centre, the SBU continued. In return, he was promised “evacuation” to Russia along with Russian citizenship. During the arrest, a smartphone with evidence of his work for the FSB was seized.
The SBU investigators served him a suspicion under two articles of the Ukrainian Criminal Code: treason under martial law (Article 111, Part 2) and knowingly false reporting of a bomb threat against a critical infrastructure facility (Article 259, Part 2). The man is in custody without the right to bail; he faces life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
