Couple Arrested Spying for Russia in Mykolaiv

Ukraine’s security service (SBU) has disrupted a suspected Russian spy network in the southern city of Mykolaiv, accusing two individuals of attempting to infiltrate one of the country’s key defense enterprises.

The SBU announced Friday that its counterintelligence units, working jointly with the Ministry of Defense, “prevented the enemy’s attempt to penetrate one of the leading defense plants in the south of our state.”

According to investigators, the pair, a woman and her common-law partner, were allegedly gathering classified information on Ukrainian defense industry facilities, including production sites and the status of government military contracts.

The SBU said the couple had been “hunting” for secret data about dispersal locations of critical defense infrastructure.

Officials said the woman was the first to be recruited by Russian intelligence operatives. She owned a private company that worked with a major Mykolaiv based defense manufacturer, making her a valuable source for Moscow. She was tasked with collecting sensitive details about the facility’s location and defense-related orders.

She allegedly enlisted her partner, who worked in the logistics and procurement department of the plant, to carry out the assignment. Investigators believe he passed her information about production workshops and the progress of state defense contracts.

However, the report said the operation was disrupted at an early stage. “The SBU exposed the pair of agents at the start of their cooperation with the enemy,” the agency added.

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During the raid, officers reportedly seized a smartphone containing evidence of the woman’s contacts with a handler in Russian-occupied Donetsk. The man was identified as Serhiy Lebedev, known under the alias “Lokhmatiy,” who is described by the SBU as an operative working for both Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and its GRU military intelligence.

The SBU added that the woman was detained before she could “report” her findings to the Russians.

Both suspects now face criminal prosecution. Investigators charged the woman with two counts under Ukraine’s Criminal Code:

• Article 111-2, Part 2: High treason committed under martial law.
• Article 114-2, Part 1: Unauthorized dissemination of information about the Armed Forces during wartime.

The woman remains in custody and faces a possible life sentence with confiscation of assets. Her partner has also been served with notice of suspicion, and prosecutors are determining appropriate pre-trial restrictions to be applied to him.