Cyber experts of the Security Service of Ukraine have uncovered new attempts by aggressors to inflict fire damage on Ukraine's strategic infrastructure.
As a result of a special operation in Kyiv and Odessa, two FSB agents were apprehended. They were preparing missile strikes on military units of the Defense Forces and on energy and telecommunication facilities in three regions.
The attention of the agents was particularly focused on army units providing security for the General Staff of the Armed Forces, as well as information about Defense Forces in the Poltava region, the Kyiv TV tower, and the capital's thermal power plant.
Initially, the criminals attempted to identify the locations of Ukrainian military bases and then provide the Russian forces with corresponding coordinates to adjust air strikes.
One of the Russian agents posed as a dispatcher in an Odessa-based company supplying food products to Defense Force units for covert intelligence gathering. The other perpetrator collected information about the technical condition of the Kyiv TV tower following its shelling in March 2022.
He also photographed the exterior of one of the thermal power plants that provide electricity and heat to a significant part of the capital region. According to available information, this data was required by the aggressor to decide on adjusting repeated or carrying out new strikes on the local thermal power plant and TV tower.
SBU officers timely exposed the reconnaissance activities of the Russian agents and systematically documented them. Measures were also taken to secure the locations of the Defense Forces and strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure.
At the final stage of the special operation, both criminals were caught 'in the act' while spying on potential 'targets' for the Russians.
According to the investigation, one of the hostile accomplices turned out to be an engineer-technologist at a food industry enterprise in Odessa. The other is a 24-year-old resident of Kyiv. At the end of January of this year, they were remotely recruited by an FSB personnel officer from Moscow and the Moscow region. The identity of this individual has already been established by the Security Service.
Both agents acted independently of each other and received financial 'compensation' from Russia for cooperation in favor of the aggressor country.
During searches at the detainees' residences, mobile phones with evidence of correspondence with the FSB and bank cards receiving Russian funds were seized. Currently, SSU investigators have informed both suspects of their suspicion under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (state treason committed under conditions of martial law).
The criminals are in custody and face life imprisonment.
