The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Monday that it had arrested an unnamed 45-year-old female head chef working in a restaurant in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.
The woman, who stands accused of spying for Ukraine’s main intelligence directorate (HUR) for the past two years, has been remanded in custody, as per Meduza.
The FSB claims that she first offered her services to Ukrainian intelligence in around September 2023.
She allegedly passed information about the locations of and routes used by Russian military personnel and equipment within Sevastopol – once the main port for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – to her handlers via WhatsApp.
Specifically, the FSB claims that she took photographs of Black Sea Fleet ships located in and around Sevastopol Bay which the Ukrainian Armed Forces later used to plan missile attacks.
In addition, she is accused of plotting to poison members of Russian special forces who frequented the restaurant where she worked.
The FSB’s Crimean detachment said it had charged her with “high treason” under Article 275 of Russia’s Criminal Code – adding that investigations into her “criminal activity” are ongoing.
According to the FSB statement, this is yet another example of the “Ukrainian special
services [destabilizing] the socio-political situation and [inflicting] economic damage on the state, by actively recruiting perpetrators of sabotage and terrorist attacks.”
It said that Kyiv was using online platforms and social media (including popular messaging apps Telegram and WhatsApp, which Russia restricted access to last month) to offer “traitors” the chance to “make quick money.”
It added, however, that all such criminal plans would be uncovered, and that all those who are tempted to assist “enemy” Ukraine would receive lengthy prison sentences.
It further called on Russian citizens to be vigilant and to report any attempts by “unfamiliar contacts” on messaging apps to draw them “into their plots.”
Over the past year, there have been several instances of Russian security services using similar methods to identify disgruntled or susceptible Ukrainian individuals to carry out sabotage attacks aimed at military locations in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.