An agent of Russia’s GRU has been sentenced to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property for spying on Defence Forces personnel in Kharkiv.
This was reported by the Security Service.
Investigators found that the woman was directing the occupiers’ missile and bomb strikes at backup command posts and combat positions of defenders in the frontline city. To carry out her task, she offered Ukrainian servicemen household help for a token fee and cleaned the homes where the defenders were temporarily staying.
In this way, the offender tried to win the soldiers’ trust, spoke with them and coaxed out the information she needed. She later went out into the area, verified the data and filmed Ukrainian sites on her phone.
SBU officers detained the woman in the act as she was conducting additional reconnaissance near a Defence Forces building. According to the case materials, the hostile informant turned out to be a local unemployed woman who was looking for easy money in Telegram channels.
After being recruited, she communicated with a staff officer of the Russian special service, whose identity the SBU has already established. During searches, officers seized a smartphone from the detainee containing hidden screenshots of Google Maps, where she had marked the defenders’ sites in Kharkiv to pass on to the occupiers.
The court found the offender guilty of high treason committed under martial law.