Ukraine announces the arrest of an officer accused of spying for Russia

Ukraine said Friday it had arrested an officer who leads a special forces unit in the country on charges of passing information to Russia about secret military operations carried out by Kiev.

The suspect, a lieutenant colonel, was recruited by Russia before its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and was then operated last spring by a Russian military intelligence agent through his contacts in Russia, the SBU said in a statement.

Since the beginning of the war, both Kiev and Moscow have repeatedly announced the arrest of citizens on charges of spying for the other side.

But the arrest of a military official with access to classified information about special operations is rare.

The Ukrainian Security Service according to reports, the arrest took place in recent days.

Ukrainian intelligence services confirmed that he was charged with high treason and faces a life sentence, adding that they had confiscated secret electronic communications equipment from his home.

The Ukrainian Security Service confirmed that the suspect’s mission was to transfer operational plans organized by Kiev behind enemy lines, noting that his Russian operators were particularly interested in obtaining information about Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance operations in the occupied areas in the south, especially in Zaporizhia and Kherson, which have been partially under Russian occupation since 2022, and the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

The arrest coincides with growing fears of a new Russian attack on the Zaporizhia front, in addition to the attack on the eastern front, where Russian forces have advanced in recent weeks.

The Ukrainian Security Service said that the spy used his position to obtain information about the movements of Ukrainian forces, their weapons and targets, adding that the Russians planned to use this information to eliminate Ukrainian special forces soldiers on the front.