Ukraine said it has nabbed another high-ranking officer for allegedly spying for Russia.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Tuesday that it detained a reserve lieutenant colonel from “one of the components of the Defense Forces of Ukraine,” where he started working with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) after his discharge from active duty in 2023.
The SBU said the suspect was tasked with collecting intelligence on Ukrainian troop deployments in the Sumy region, where Russian troops have made some advances in recent months.
The SBU said the suspect’s recruitment by Moscow earned his recruiter a general’s rank in the FSB, without specifying the motivation for the suspect’s decision to spy for Russia.
“Given the agent’s military rank and combat experience, his recruitment was handled by one of the heads of the FSB border department. For the successful recruitment operation, the Russian intelligence officer received the rank of general,” the SBU press release says.
The suspect curated a spy network for those willing to spy on behalf of the FSB, and at times involved his former comrades who unwittingly provided him with information, the SBU said.
“He collected information about the deployment of the Defense Forces fighting on the front lines. To do this, the defendant ‘secretly’ used acquaintances among Ukrainian soldiers, with whom he had been friends after being discharged from service,” the press release says.
The SBU said the recruitment process involved multiple screenings before new recruits would receive a briefing inside Russia.
“The agent’s task was to identify ‘like-minded people’ among his acquaintances. Further recruitment of ‘candidates’ was to be carried out by Russian special services. In the case of successful ‘interviews,’ the person involved was to transport the candidates for briefing in the Russian Federation,” the press release adds.
The SBU stated that the suspect belonged to a spy cell that was “neutralized” in April, before adding that he acted independently of other agents.
He was arrested while attempting to recruit a new member.
The man is served a suspicion notice on committing treason during martial law and illegally transporting people across the border. He faces life imprisonment and confiscation of property if convicted.
The arrest of the reserve lieutenant colonel followed another recent arrest of a high-ranking (field grade) mole in the Ukrainian Air Force.
The SBU said it arrested an Air Force colonel on July 2 in the Lviv region after he worked directly with an FSB officer to share intelligence on military bases.
The unnamed colonel was reportedly recruited by his ex-military wife, who now works as a Russian collaborator in occupied Melitopol in central Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
The SBU has also reported multiple cases of Russian moles within the military in 2025.
In May, the SBU nabbed a mole in a defense firm for purportedly trying to steal information on military developments. Earlier the same month, it nabbed a soldier in a combat brigade in the Kharkiv region for allegedly spying for Russia.