Successful counterintelligence operation: The security service detained an FSB agent working in 'standby mode' in the border territory of the Chernihiv region.
Counterintelligence officers of the Security Service successfully took into custody an FSB agent who had been in “standby mode” in the border territory of the Chernihiv region for more than a year. Beginning in October 2023, this “reactivated” agent acted on the instructions of the Russian intelligence service, collecting intelligence on the deployment of Ukrainian defenders in the region.
The press service of the department reports this
The main goal of the attacker was to determine the exact coordinates of the headquarters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces involved in the defense of the northern borders of Ukraine, as well as to obtain information about the locations of fortifications and places of concentration of personnel and equipment of the Ukrainian defenders.
This data should be used by the invaders to prepare artillery strikes on the border territory of Ukraine and conduct sabotage attacks. The agent was detained while carrying out a mission in the area of the possible location of one of the Defense Forces facilities.
According to preliminary data, the attacker turned out to be a 20-year-old resident of the Novgorod-Seversk community, recruited by the FSB during the temporary occupation of part of the region in March 2022. After the invaders escaped from the Chernihiv region, he was left in “standby mode,” and in October of this year, his “curator” from the Bryansk region got in touch, setting him new intelligence tasks.
The attacker carried out tasks by traveling around the region in his own car and using his mobile phone to record possible locations of the Defense Forces. He transmitted the information received to the aggressor through a specially created electronic mailbox, while deleting messages for secrecy.
During a search at the attacker's place of residence, evidence of illegal activities was discovered. Security Service investigators informed him of suspicion under Part 2 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason committed under martial law). The defendant was chosen as a preventive measure - detention, he faces life imprisonment. Complex measures were carried out by SBU officers in the Chernihiv region under the procedural leadership of the regional prosecutor's office.
