Russian asset collecting data on military airfields detained in Mykolaiv
In Mykolaiv, the Security Service of Ukraine detained an FSB informant, who had been gathering intelligence on the locations of military bases and movement of Ukraine’s Defense Forces.
That’s according to the SBU press office, Ukrinform reports.
The inquiry learned that at the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the culprit crossed out of country and started to actively support the armed aggression, after which he was remotely recruited by Russian intelligence.
Returning to Ukraine in March of this year, he tried to identify locations of military airfields where the Ukrainian aircraft are based in times of war.
It has been established that he maintained remote contact with Russian intelligence through a pro-Kremlin blogger Sergey Lebedev (better known under the alias Lokhmaty), who resides in temporarily occupied Donetsk and works for the FSB.
In June, the SBU charged the blogger with treason (in absentia) and neutralized his network of informants in Mykolaiv region.
The FSB asset turned out to be a local resident who was an active user of the Lohmaty Telegram channel.
In communication with the enemy blogger, he sent information about the deployment of Ukraine’s Defense Forces across the region, collected through personal contacts and from open sources.
In addition, he would travel around the area and covertly record Ukrainian facilities and then sent the information to the FSB in the form of texts and photos with a geo link to the facility.
SBU employees documented the criminal activity of the Russian informant and ultimately detained him.
During the search, the mobile phone that he used for communicate with Lebedev was seized.
As reported in the Prosecutor General's Office, the perpetrator was charged with unauthorized dissemination of information about the movement or locations of the Ukrainian military (Article 114-2 Part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
He is facing up to 12 years in prison.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, the SBU Office in Mykolaiv region neutralized a Russian intelligence network, which involved 13 local residents. They transmitted the coordinates of Ukrainian facilities to the FSB through a designated Telegram channel.
In June 2023, the SBU charged the individual in absentia. Lebedev was engaged in the formation of an intelligence asset network in various regions of Ukraine, for which he created a Telegram channel with an audience of more than 30,000 users.
Photo: SBU