The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained a suspected informant of Russian intelligence services who spied on Ukraine's military and aided Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Donetsk Oblast, the SBU's press service reported on Feb. 7.
A Russian missile attack launched on a residential area in the Pokrovsk district of Donetsk Oblast on Jan. 6 killed six people, including two children. The detained woman allegedly provided information that helped guide the attack.
The suspect also reportedly tracked the presence and secretly recorded the movement of Ukrainian military units toward the front line.
The woman got a job as a shop assistant at a train station kiosk in the front-line district of Donetsk Oblast to accomplish the tasks.
According to the SBU, she asked for the necessary information from train station workers during friendly conversations and while selling goods.
The suspect remotely transmitted all obtained information to a handler of Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU).
Ukraine's law enforcement officers detained the suspected informant in her house and seized a cell phone used in reconnaissance and subversive activities.
According to the SBU, Russia recruited the woman before the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion.
Alexander Khrebet
The Russian handler also assigned her to collect information in the Bakhmut sector of the front in the summer of 2023, the SBU said.
The suspect was charged with spying on the military and faces up to 12 years in prison. She is currently in custody.
This is the third detention of suspected Russian spies this week.
The SBU announced on Feb. 5 that it had detained five individuals allegedly spying on the Ukrainian military in Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk oblasts and passing information to the FSB.
The security service on Feb. 6 also said it had detained five more individuals, including former and current officials of Ukraine's intelligence services, allegedly working for Russia in various regions of Ukraine.
