Ukrainian Air Force Colonel Suspected to Be Russian Mole

Ukraine has arrested a colonel in the Air Force for allegedly leaking intelligence on military bases to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

The arrest followed another high-ranking mole nabbed in the counterterrorism headquarters of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) in February.

The SBU, in its Thursday press release, said the colonel, who was arrested in the Lviv region, worked directly with an officer from the FSB’s “Alpha” special operations department, Alexander Belodyedov.

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 did not specify what exactly motivated the colonel to spy for Russia.

The colonel is tasked with providing “the coordinates of operational airfields, logistics hubs, and maintenance centers for combat aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the SBU said.

“If [Russia] received the appropriate geolocations, the occupiers hoped to launch missile and drone strikes against them,” the press release says.

The SBU said it had arrested the colonel before he was able to relay the information, and that it has taken measures to secure the intelligence surrounding the bases and their operations.

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The colonel has been served a suspicion notice for high treason and faces life imprisonment, with confiscation of property, if convicted. 

His wife, a alleged Russian collaborator, has also been served a suspicion notice in absentia for high treason in wartime.

The SBU has 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.