The Security Service of Ukraine detained a deacon of the UOC (MP) and a psychotherapist for spying on the Ukrainian military - the defenders of Kharkiv - on the orders of the Russian Federal Security Service, the SBU reported on Monday, UNN reports.
The Security Service detained two FSB agents in Kharkiv. They were a local psychotherapist and his accomplice, a deacon of the Kharkiv diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), who were spying in the frontline city
According to the SBU, the offenders tried to establish the location of personnel and military equipment of the Defense Forces. They also collected personal data of the Ukrainian military and their routes in Kharkiv.
The doctor, according to the SBU, secretly used his patients, including military personnel undergoing rehabilitation after combat operations, to obtain information. He involved his close acquaintance, a deacon of the local cathedral of the Kharkiv diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, in cooperation with the FSB, who quietly solicited the necessary information from parishioners.
The doctor, as indicated, transmitted the information to the Russian curator via messenger, using a separate phone and a SIM card hidden in the mailbox.
Despite the secrecy measures, the SBU documented their crimes and detained them at their places of residence. Counterintelligence established that the doctor had been a "sleeper agent" of the FSB for some time, activated in the spring of 2024.
During the searches, mobile phones and computer equipment with evidence of their activities were seized.
The defendants were notified of suspicion under: part 2 of article 28, part 2 of article 111 (high treason committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons under martial law); part 1 of article 436-2 (justification of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).
They are currently being held without bail. They face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.