Russian agents "hunting" for Patriot air defence systems detained

The SBU counterintelligence service has unmasked two more Russian agents who collected intelligence on the deployment of the Defence Forces and the consequences of Russian air attacks in Kyiv and Cherkasy. This is reported by the SBU.

According to the investigation, one of the defendants was most interested in the approximate coordinates of the basing of Ukrainian air defence systems, including anti-aircraft missile systems "Patriot".

The perpetrators also travelled to the places of air strikes of the aggressor and photographed the consequences of enemy "arrivals" there. Hidden photos were taken from different angles and georeferenced.

It was established that after the Russian missile attack on Cherkassy on September 21 this year, the woman took hidden photos of the damaged building in the city centre and sent them to her accomplice, a citizen of the Russian Federation, who lives in Kiev, - reported in the SBU.

According to available information, after receiving the "report" with clarifying information about the consequences of the defeat, the Kiev man tried to leave for Russia. The trip was planned through the territory of the EU as a person of non-conscription age.

The SBU officers exposed the plans of the attacker and detained him after purchasing a ticket to one of the European countries.

The detainee turned out to be a doctor of philosophy, a former teacher of one of Chernihiv institutions of higher education. In 2015, he travelled to the temporarily occupied Crimea, where he obtained a Russian passport.

Then he returned to Kyiv, and after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, he began covertly tracking the locations of the Defence Forces in Kyiv. Subsequently, he involved his acquaintance from Cherkassy in subversive activities.

SBU officers documented her criminal actions and detained her at her place of residence. During searches in the premises of the defendants were found:

• prohibited symbols of the aggressor country;
• souvenir products with pictures of Putin;
• passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation;
• mobile phones with evidence of illegal activities.

SBU investigators qualified the illegal actions of the detainees under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• ч. 2 of Art. 114-2 (unauthorised dissemination of information about the movement, movement and location of AFU units);
• part 1, 3 of Article 436-2 (justification, recognition of lawfulness, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).

The detainees were taken into custody. The investigation is ongoing. The perpetrators face up to 8 years in prison.