Ukrainian law enforcement and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have dismantled a Russian intelligence and sabotage network responsible for spying on the military and plotting terrorist attacks and targeted assassinations across the country.
Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko announced on March 24 that the network, consisting of more than 10 individuals, gathered intelligence on the deployment, movement, and equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. They also documented the aftermath of Russian strikes and relayed the data to their Russian handlers via messengers.
According to the SBU, the group was coordinated by Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU). The network's primary targets for assassination included an advisor to Ukraine's Defense Minister, prominent volunteer Serhiy Sternenko, and Ilya Bogdanov, a Russian citizen who has been fighting for Ukraine since 2014.
During the special operation, an armed assassin who violently resisted arrest was eliminated. SBU officials revealed that the hitman, originally from the occupied part of the Donetsk region, had received combat training at a GRU base before being smuggled into Ukrainian-controlled territory. His mission was to manufacture and plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) under the victims' vehicles or near their homes. He was instructed to shoot the targets at point-blank range if the bombings failed.
The network's intelligence-gathering was consolidated by a recruited forensic expert from Poltava. Acting as the group's resident, he tracked the addresses and daily routes of the intended victims and transmitted this data directly to the Russian special services.
In Kramatorsk, the agents were also tasked with identifying a dining facility frequently visited by Ukrainian soldiers to carry out a mass casualty terrorist attack. Explosives for this plot were delivered via drone to a pre-arranged drop zone.
Searches of the suspects' properties yielded firearms, ammunition, IED components, dictaphones, and surveillance cameras containing evidence of their collaboration with Russian intelligence. One of the detainees also confessed during interrogation to previously bombing a parking lot on behalf of the Russian army.
The SBU noted that the successful operation, coordinated by SBU First Deputy Head Oleksandr Poklad, was largely made possible by deep agent infiltration into the enemy's ranks. The sources involved have since been safely extracted to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
The detained suspects face multiple charges, including high treason, collaboration, illegal dissemination of military movements, illegal weapons handling, and preparation for a terrorist act. They are currently being held without bail and face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.