Ukraine Claims to have Dismantled Russian Spy Ring

Ukraine said it had arrested five former and current intelligence officers it said were secretly working for Russia as part of a powerful spy ring. Kyiv said the suspects were caught passing information to Russia’s FSB security service about Ukrainian military sites, its defensive fortifications, personal data, and strategic energy facilities. The security service of Ukraine neutralized a powerful agent network run by the FSB’s military counterintelligence which was operating in Ukraine. The general prosecutor said the five – former employees of Ukraine’s defense intelligence and its foreign intelligence units as well as a current SBU regional agent – were arrested on suspicion of treason. The suspects passed on intelligence about the Defence Forces and strategically important energy facilities to representatives of the aggressor state’s special services. The group also passed information about defensive barriers near the Black Sea port city of Odesa, the location of rocket launchers in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and information on Ukrainian troop movements and vehicles. Ukraine has arrested several individuals it alleges were undercover Russian spies or for passing strategic information to Russian handlers since Moscow invaded in February 2022.