SBU neutralizes Russian intelligence network that was tracking F-16 locations
18 December 09:28
The SBU Military Counterintelligence stopped the activities of a large-scale agent network of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (known as the Gru). The attackers were spying on the Defense Forces in 5 regions of Ukraine at once. This was reported by the Security Service of Ukraine, Komersant ukrainskyi informs.
As a result of the special operation, 12 Russian agents and their informants were exposed. Some of them were deserters who had left the Armed Forces of Ukraine without permission and were recruited by the Russian secret service while hiding from justice.
The members of the enemy cell acted separately from each other and were focused on the resident (leader) of the agent group, who was located in the Dnipro region. For conspiracy, he used fake “cover documents” such as a fake “volunteer certificate” and an “anti-corruption activist”. He involved accomplices from Zaporizhzhia, as well as Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions in cooperation with the aggressor.
In these regions, the defendants reconnoitered the firing positions of Ukrainian air defense, tried to identify the locations of secret military airfields where, according to the racists, F-16s could be based.
A separate task of the enemy agents was to identify the addresses of companies involved in the production of electronic warfare equipment against Russian drones.
To obtain intelligence, the offenders used their acquaintances, including Ukrainian military personnel stationed in the frontline regions of Ukraine, in the dark. After receiving preliminary information, the agents went out to the area to conduct additional reconnaissance near potential targets. At first, the members of the agent group “reported” to the resident, and then he passed the information to his Russian supervisor.
The SBU military counterintelligence exposed the entire enemy cell in advance. The men were detained in Dnipropetrovs’k region. During the searches, SBU officers seized mobile phones, flash drives, military documents and forged IDs.
SBU investigators served the detainees a notice of suspicion (in accordance with the crimes committed) under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
ч. 2 Art. 111 (high treason committed under martial law);
ч. 2 of Art. 114-2 (unauthorized dissemination of information on the movement, movement or location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine).
Comprehensive measures are under way to bring to justice other members of the Russian agent network. The offenders face from 8 years in prison to life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
