"Hunting" for defense plants: Russian military intelligence agent detained in Zaporizhzhia
Kyiv • UNN
The SBU detained an agent of the Russian GRU in Zaporizhzhia, who was planning to transfer geolocation data of Ukrainian defense companies to Russia. He now faces life in prison for high treason.
The SBU CI detained another agent of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (known as "Gru"), who was operating in Zaporizzhia. The offender tried to identify and pass on to the aggressor the geolocation of local enterprises of the defense industry of Ukraine. This was reported by the SBU press service, according to UNN.
Details
It is noted that he was primarily interested in factories that produce ammunition for heavy armored vehicles and rocket and artillery weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The defendant also monitored the places of the largest concentration of personnel and military equipment of the Defense Forces in the regional center.
To do this, he traveled around the city by public transport and covertly recorded infrastructure facilities that he believed could be used to base Ukrainian troops or produce munitions,
SBU officers documented the facts of the Russian agent's reconnaissance and subversive activities and detained him in his apartment. They seized his cell phone, which he used to take photos and videos of Ukrainian targets and communicate with the group.
According to the investigation, the defendant is a former deputy head of a department of the former regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who resigned from the service in 2014.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he was recruited by a career military officer of the Russian Defense Ministry, with whom he had received higher education together in the Soviet Union,
In the fall of 2023, this agent began to actively perform hostile tasks. To communicate with the aggressor, the suspect used an anonymous chat in a popular messenger, and transmitted information in encrypted words, which he had practiced in advance.
Based on the evidence collected, SBU investigators served him a notice of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason committed under martial law). He is currently in custody. The offender faces life imprisonment.
