SBU neutralizes FSB agent network in Kherson
Kyiv • UNN
The SBU detained three FSB agents in Kherson who were collecting intelligence on the Defense Forces. The criminals planned to attract more “like-minded people” through the Telegram channel for espionage.
The SBU neutralized an FSB agent group in Kherson. As a result of the special operation, three members of the enemy cell, who acted separately from each other, but were "supervised" by an occupation official from the TOT of Kherson region, were detained in the city. This was reported by the SBU, UNN reports.
Details
The "curator" of the FSB agent group was a Russian, Oleksandr Kostin, the occupation "first deputy minister of information policy" in the temporarily occupied left bank of Kherson region. On the instructions of the FSB, he tried to create an agent network in Kherson.
To do this, Kostin engaged two of his subordinates from the occupation's "mini-information policy" as residents (heads) of the agent network.
They remotely recruited three residents of Kherson. One of them worked for the aggressor during the occupation of the city, and after the liberation of the community, he "went into hiding," the SBU said.
The defendants were reconnoitering the locations of the Defense Forces in the regional center.
According to the SBU, the racists needed the intelligence to prepare missile and drone strikes on the locations of Ukrainian defenders. Among the enemy's priority targets were the firing positions of mobile air defense fire groups, as well as the base points of the Security Service, National Police and Prosecutor's Office.
Russian agents also spied on officials of the regional military administration. Reportedly, the FSB planned to use the information to intimidate RMA representatives 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 the regional center. The administrators of the hostile Internet resource urged potential participants to "leak" the coordinates of the Defense Forces and personal information about Ukrainian defenders.
However, the Security Service thwarted the FSB's plans.
During the searches, the law enforcement seized mobile phones and computer equipment with evidence of criminal actions.
The SBU investigators have now served them suspicion notices under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
ч. 2 of Article 111 (high treason committed under martial law);
ч. 2 of Art. 114-2 (unauthorized dissemination of information on the movement, relocation or deployment of the Armed Forces committed under martial law).
The offenders are in custody. They face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
Kostin's criminal actions were classified 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 FSB accomplices were served suspicion notices in absentia for high treason committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.
