Security Service of Ukraine detains agent who corrected a strike on Kyiv on New Year's Eve

The SBU has detained an FSB agent who was recruited in Russia and sent to Ukraine to carry out intelligence and subversive activities, the SBU has said. This was reported by the SBU.

It was on his coordinates on 31 December 2022, the Russian Federation launched a missile strike on the building of the Kyiv national University named after Taras Shevchenko. The attacker also reconnaissance locations of headquarters and places of the greatest concentration of personnel and military equipment of the AFU on the territory of the capital and Zhytomyr region, - stated in the message.

SBU officers exposed the Russian agent, established his location and detained him in his own house in Kyiv.

According to the investigation, the enemy accomplice turned out to be a 40-year-old resident of the capital, who held pro-Kremlin views. At the end of last year, he formalised the status of a "volunteer" and left for Russia via third countries.

While crossing the border with the Russian Federation, the man, on his own initiative, declared to a career FSB officer that he was ready to cooperate with the Russian security service. To confirm his "loyalty" to the occupiers, the Kyiv man immediately gave them the coordinates where one of the units of the Defence Forces is allegedly stationed in the capital region, - reported in the SBU.

A few days later, the Russians conducted an air attack on this "location".

FSB representatives took the agent to Moscow, where he was instructed in detail on working methods, conspiracy and priority tasks. The traitor was then sent to Ukraine to gather intelligence. In return, he was promised assistance in obtaining Russian citizenship and timely "evacuation" to the Russian Federation.

To obtain intelligence information in Zhytomyr region, the agent "darkly" used his relatives. In Kyiv, he conducted visual surveillance and photofixation of Ukrainian objects while walking around the city.

During the searches, the traitor was seized:

• russian symbols;
• personal documents notarised in the Russian Federation, necessary to obtain citizenship of the aggressor country;
• a mobile phone containing his correspondence with his Moscow "curator" from the FSB.

The SBU investigators informed the detainee of suspicion under part 2 of article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason committed under martial law). He faces life imprisonment.