Ukraine has detained yet another soldier accused of spying for Russia’s Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), a statement by its Security Service (SBU) said on Monday.
The alleged spy was recently mobilized to a combat brigade of the Ministry of Defense’s State Special Transport Service in the country’s central Dnipropetrovsk region.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
The SBU said on Monday that the man – whose name and age were unspecified – was recruited shortly after his mobilization due to his pro-Russian comments on social media. He was said to have been tasked by his GRU handlers with supplying them with troop and facility locations for future missile strikes.
The man supplied “the geolocation of the military unit where he underwent military training,” according to the SBU’s Monday press release.
He was later detained during a combat-arms exercise, though it remains unclear whether the location he leaked was the same as the one at where he was caught.
The SBU said a phone with evidence of his communication with Russian intelligence was seized during his arrest, and military authorities have taken measures to safeguard the locations leaked by the alleged spy.
The accused has been formally charged with high treason committed under martial law and faces a potential life sentence if convicted.
The arrest is the latest in a growing string of detentions within Ukraine’s military and institutions targeting suspected Russian spies.
Ukraine Says Strikes on Russia’s Shadow Fleet Are Legal
In early July, the SBU announced the arrest of a reserve lieutenant colonel, whose recruitment allegedly earned his Russian handler a promotion to general in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Earlier that month, the SBU reported the arrest of an Air Force colonel who was allegedly recruited by his former wife – a retired service member turned Russian collaborator.
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.
The threat of Russian spies also indirectly triggered one of the largest wartime protests in Ukraine, when President Volodymyr Zelensky attempted to strip the anti-corruption agencies of their independence due to alleged Russian ties of anti-graft officials. The decision was later reversed amid widespread dissent, although the accused officials remain under detention.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
