Kherson: SSU exposes Russian agents collecting data on Defence Forces and RMA officials
According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the SSU press centre.
As a result of a special operation in Kherson, three members of the enemy cell were detained, who acted separately from each other but were linked to a single curator from Russia.
It was the so-called occupation ‘First Deputy Minister of Information Policy’ in the temporarily occupied left bank of Kherson region, Russian Alexander Kostin.
In addition to the functions of the Kremlin's mouthpiece, the invader institution tried to fulfil the task of the Russian special services to create agent networks in the regional centre.
For this purpose, Kostin engaged two subordinates from the so-called ‘Ministry of Information Policy’ as residents (heads) of the agent network.
They remotely recruited three residents of Kherson to join the group. One of them worked for the Russians during the temporary seizure of the city and went into hiding after the community was liberated.
The Russians needed the intelligence to prepare missile and drone strikes on the locations of Ukrainian defenders.
Among the enemy's priority targets were firing positions of mobile air defence fire groups, as well as the base points of the Security Service, National Police and Prosecutor's Office.
Russian agents were also spying on RMA officials. The enemy planned to use the information to intimidate them through personal threats of physical violence.
The defendants planned to attract the maximum number of like-minded people from the right-bank part of the region.
To do this, they created a Telegram channel that functioned allegedly on behalf of the pro-Russian underground in Kherson. The administrators of the online resource called on potential participants to send the coordinates of the Defence Forces and personal information about Ukrainian defenders.
During the searches, mobile phones and computer equipment with evidence of criminal activity were seized from the detainees.
The SSU investigators served them with a notice of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - Part 2 of Article 111 (high treason committed under martial law) and Part 2 of Article 114-2 (unauthorised dissemination of information on the movement, relocation or deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine committed under martial law).
The criminals are in custody. They face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
Kostin's criminal actions are qualified in absentia under Part 3 of Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine), and his two accomplices, residents of the Russian special services, were served in absentia with a notice of suspicion of treason committed by prior conspiracy.
As Ukrinform previously reported, the SSU detained a Russian informant who, under the guise of a taxi driver, was collecting intelligence for the invaders in Donetsk region, in particular, tracking the locations of HIMARS missile systems in the Pokrovske direction.
Photo: SSU
