The Security Service of Ukraine uncovered a Russian military intelligence (GRU) agent group that coordinated air attacks on Kyiv and carried out sabotage in southern Ukraine.
According to the case materials, the cell consisted of four people:
- Two were direct agents and executors of “orders”;
- One was a “liaison” through whom the agents received instructions;
- One was the direct supervisor of the operatives, a GRU officer named Maksym Chachyn.
The SSU’s counterintelligence detained the executing agents in February 2025. Since then, comprehensive measures were taken to identify the other cell members and document their contacts.
The investigation revealed that the GRU officer recruited a former professor from a well-known Kyiv university, who in 2021 moved to Russia fand began collaborating with the Russian forces.
After the full-scale war began, the professor connected her former student—a 27-year-old Kyiv resident supporting Russia’s aggression—to the Russia’s agent network. She then introduced him to another Kyiv resident, a 40-year-old ex-military member with knowledge of the Defense Forces’ deployment points, who joined the agent group.
Together, they surveyed locations, marked them on Google Maps, and sent the data to the GRU supervisor to prepare missile and drone attacks on Kyiv.
Later, the agents moved to Odessa, where they initially lay low and then, following Russian instructions, set fire to two mobile communication towers and several power substations.
The operatives also planned terrorist acts using improvised explosive devices, but the Security Service prevented them.
The suspects are in custody and face life imprisonment with property confiscation.
A notice of suspicion is also being prepared for the GRU supervisor and the group’s liaison.
The SSU in Odessa region carries out these comprehensive measures under the procedural guidance of the regional prosecutor’s office.
